How to translate this conversation? 就是那种又泡又回吃的那种 Hi, I just watched a street interview where girls are asked "when is a man most useful?" 男人什么时候最有用

There is a response that I don't understand: 暖被窝吧 暖被窝最有用 . 就是那种又泡又回吃的那种

Can someone help me clarify it?

哈哈，这是一个玩笑。原文应该是“暖被窝吧 暖被窝最有用就是那种又胖又会吃的那种”。

the following interpretation is suitable for 18 or above, read with cautions :)

  暖被窩吧 暖被窩最有用 . 就是那種又泡又回吃的那種

started from 吃, it's the metaphor of "sexual intercourse", so, "回吃" is "sexual intercourse" again.

"泡", there's a word "泡妞", which means making friend with girls:

http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/cbdic/gsweb.cgi?o=dcbdic&searchid=Z00000023468

it's pronounced similar to another character "抱" (u+62b1), which means embrace.

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

so, together, the girl expressed that:

a male (男人) is useful (有用) when, after sexual intercourse; he embrace his female partner (又泡) and eager for xxxking again (回吃).

one might workout the assumption: that it's in the context of cold environment, that two people holding each other together is warmer (暖被窩) than each one sleeps alone.


Translation into English of “交通银行”, “交通大学” and “交通职业技术学院” Obviously, "交通" means transport or transportation in English. But in reality, there are various versions of the translation.

"交通银行" = Bank of Communications (One of the key five State-owned commercial banks of China).

"上海交通大学" = Shanghai Jiaotong University (One of the best colleges in China, offering a large number of degree majors besides those concerning transportation).

"广西交通职业技术学院" = Guangxi Vocational and Technical College of Communications (One of the many such colleges co-sponsored by local education authorities and local transportation authorities in China, with three-year diploma programs offered but no degree).

Why are they so different? Is there any principle for translation or nomenclature?

By the way, China's national transportation authorities 交通部 now changed into 交通运输部. Its name in English was "Ministry of Communications", but now it is "Ministry of Transport".

For the universities, only

上海交通大学 (Shanghai Jiaotong Univ)

西安交通大学 (Xi'an Jiaotong Univ)

北京交通大学 (Beijing Jiaotong Univ)

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

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

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

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

Former answers are accurate, but I think it is necessary to figure out what 交通 means. This word comes from 易经(I Ching) an very important ancient book of Chinese. It says 天地交而万物通*，上下交而其志同*. It is full of philosophy and is very hard to be translate it into English.This sentence contains the Chinese ancient view and attitude of the natural and human society.


刀削面: who says xuē and who says xiāo? I’ve only ever known 刀削面 as dāoxuēmiàn, maybe that says something about the company I keep.
I’ve noticed recently a lot of people, though, actually say dāoxiāomiàn.
ABC dictionary lists both pronunciations, with slightly different meanings:

dāoxiāomiàn
N.
shaved noodles
M: wǎn / 碗
See also dāoxuēmiàn

and

dāoxuēmiàn
N.
hand-cut noodles
M: wǎn / 碗
See also dāoxiāomiàn

Also, quite bizarrely 汉语大词典 has

dāoxuēmiàn
面食之一。先将面加水和成硬面块, 然后用刀削成片状, 煮熟食用。此法盛行于 山西 一带。

While 现代汉语大词典 has almost exactly the same definition (minus the spaces around Shanxi) under a different pronunciation:

dāoxiāomiàn
面食之一。先将面加水和成硬面块, 然后用刀削成片状, 煮熟食用。此法盛行于山西一带。

So, ABC says that they are two different things - while the two big dictionaries say they’re the same thing and differ in pronunciation.
Who says what? And are they the same thing even? Or are they separate entities?

I believe xiāo is the correct pronunciation, although xuē can also be correct in certain regions; it depends on how you pronounce 削 in its "shave" meaning.
削 has two pronunciations depending on usage, although both can mean "shave":

削 xiāo 　ㄒㄧㄠˉ
　1. 用刀斜着去掉物体的表层。～苹果皮。～铅笔。
　2. 打乒乓球时用球拍平而略斜地击球：～球。
削 xuē 　ㄒㄩㄝˉ
　1. 义同削（xiāo），用于一些复合词：～铁如泥。～足适履。
　2. 减少；减弱：～减。～弱。
　3. 除去：～职为民 。
　4. 搜刮；掠取：剥～。

xiāo is the pronunciation used for the "shave" verb, but as you can see, xuē also means "shave" in certain phrases, like 削铁如泥. Apart from that, xuē is usually used in the "pare" or "reduce" meaning, as in words like 削减.
Since 刀削面 is supposed to mean "knife-shaved noodles", the pronunciation should be based on the one for "shave". This is usually xiāo, but in some dialects it is xuē.

I search this word in Pandarow dictionary, and it shows that the pinyin is [dāo xiāo miàn],you can click this link to listen to the pronunciation.
https://chinese.pandarow.com/dict/%E5%88%80%E5%89%8A%E9%9D%A2-daoxiaomian


What is the difference between 还是 and 还? What is the difference between 还是 and 还? Is 还 the short of 还是 and, consequently, they are interchangeable in every situation, only in some cases or never?

For reference, I will list the different situations I have seen them. Can any be expressed both with 还 and 还是？
还:

means still / despite the situation in a negative sentence： Subj + 还 + 不 / 没 + [Verb Phrase]. E.g.:

我解释了这么多遍，你还不懂 ？
Wǒ jiěshì le zhème duō biàn, nǐ hái bù dǒng?
I've explained it so many times, and you still don't get it?

means also: Subj + Verb， 还 + Verb. E.g.:

她有一个弟弟，还有一个妹妹.
Tā yǒu yī gè dìdi, hái yǒu yī gè mèimei.
She has a younger brother and also has a younger sister.

means again: 还 + Verb. E.g.:

这个电影很好，我看过，还想看.
Zhège diànyǐng hěn hǎo, wǒ kànguò, hái xiǎng kàn.
This movie is very good, I watched it before and want to watch it again.

means pretty/fairly: Subj + 还 + Adj. E.g.:

我还好。
Wǒ hái hǎo.
I'm pretty/fairly good.

expresses a strong tone of surprise: Subj + 还 + Predicate + 呢 . E.g.:

还留过学呢，英语这么差 。
Hái liúguò xué ne, Yīngyǔ zhème chà.
You have studied abroad, yet your English is so bad.

marks a rhetorical question: Subj + 还 + [Verb Phrase] + 吗 ? . E.g.:

他说的话，你还听吗？
Tā shuō dehuà, nǐ hái tīng ma?
Did you listen to what he said?

means even more: Noun 1 + 比 + Noun 2 + 更 / 还 + Adj. E.g.:

他比姚明还高 。
Tā bǐ Yáo Míng hái gāo.
He is even taller than Yao Ming.

还是:

means still / despite the situation in an affirmative sentence: ⋯⋯ ，(但是 / 可是 +) Subj + 还是 + [Verb Phrase] . E.g.:

父母不同意他去，可是他还是去了。
Fùmǔ bù tóngyì tā qù, kěshì tā háishì qù le.
His parents didn't agree to it, but he still went.

provides choices in a question: Option A + 还是 + Option B ? . E.g.:

你喝茶还是喝咖啡 ？
Nǐ hē chá háishì hē kāfēi?
Do you drink tea or coffee?

means had better: Subj + 还是 + [Verb Phrase] + 吧 . E.g.:

你还是快点走吧 。
Nǐ háishì kuài diǎn zǒu ba.
You'd better leave now.

OP already listed their different definitions. They don't seem to be interchangeable at all.
The meaning of 'still' may be the only one where either word-choices can be used in the same sentence, but there's still some subtle differences between them:

Fact 1 + 还 + Fact 2 describes the facts without emphasizing any.
Fact 1 + 还是 + Fact 2  emphasizes the seriousness of Fact 1: despite Fact 1, Fact 2 still occurs .

Examples:

水浸眼眉了他还不逃命.
His eyebrows are flooded and he won't run away.

Describes a situation without emphasizing any part: Fact 1. 水浸眼眉了 and Fact 2. 他还不逃命.

水浸眼眉了他还是不逃命.
His eyebrows are flooded, he still won't run for his life.

Emphasizes the seriousness of 水浸眼眉: despite 水浸眼眉了, 他还是不逃命.

天黑了还不回家.
Not going home when it gets dark.

Describes a situation without emphasizing any part: Fact 1. 天黑了 and Fact 2. 还不回家.

天黑了还是不回家.
Still not going home after dark.

Emphasizes the importance of 天黑了: despite 天黑了, he still 不回家.

'still' is already a difficult word.
still: Old English stille "motionless, stable, fixed, stationary,"
You know that old Xmas hymn: Stille Nacht (Silent Night) （Joseph Mohr, music Franz Mohr.）
"Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht, alles schläft, einsam wacht."
still: "even now, even then, yet" (still standing, still waiting),
还huán：回到原处或恢复原状：还乡。还俗。衣锦还乡。返老还童。
还hái：依然，仍然：这本书～没有看完。
Grammar in general, has never addressed, will not answer, the question, "Why is that not acceptable?" People will just tell you, "Doesn't sound right, we don't say it like that." So you are in pursuit of inexplicable answers. Linguists have a favourite phrase, 'non-felicitous', meaning 'It sounds wrong, but don't ask us why it's wrong!'
A quick survey gave this result for your example sentences.
1. 我解释了这么多遍，你还不懂？OK to use 还是 here.
2. 她有一个弟弟，还有一个妹妹. NO ‘还有’是一词。
3. 这个电影很好，我看过，还想看. OK to use 还是 here.
4. 我还好。NO 我还是不好。X 你饿不饿？我还好。 OK 我还是不饿。 OK
5. 还留过学呢，英语这么差。NO can't use 还是 还是留过学的呢。OK
6. 他说的话，你还听吗？OK can use 还是 here.
7. 他比姚明还高。NO can't use 还是 还 here means than 还要高 OK
8. 父母不同意他去，可是他还是去了。NO can't use 还
9. 你喝茶还是喝咖啡？OK can use just 还
10. 你还是快点走吧。NO can't just use 还 here.

Maybe, 还 + verb can be changed more easily to 还是。


Does 从来 translate to "always"? Does anyone know if 从来 translates to "always"? And if it is, is it used in the same way?
For example if I want to say: "I always buy oranges", would that be “我从来买橘子”？

Without 都, 从来 does not mean always. 从来 actually means from (从) past till present (来). It is obvious where the always come from by looking at the example given by NS.X:

  他每天一起床就喝咖啡，从来都是这样。

Everyday, he drinks coffee when he wakes up. From past till present, it has always been like this.

每天      他  喝    咖啡   就      一起床     从           来           都     是   这样

See grammar usage here.

If you want to say "I always buy oranges", you can try using 向来都 instead. For example:

  我向来都是买橘子的。

向来 means all along.
都 makes it always.

从来 in modern Chinese is more like "never". It is always used with other negative word like 不 or 没有. In ancient Chinese it does means "always" but nowadays nobody use this original meaning.

So it is not common to say " I always buy oranges " as "我从来买橘子" in Chinese. You can say " 我 经常/一直 买橘子"

But when you try to say " I've never bought orange" in Chinese. You can say: "我从来没买过橘子"


How to translate "hump" or "humping"? I hope this isn't inappropriate, but neither of my two dictionaries had a proper translation. The closest one was 性交, but to my understanding, that's the same meaning as 上床. I'm looking for a word that will describe the physical action, whether sexual or not. For example

He celebrated by humping the air
The guy at the club kept humping my leg on the dance floor.

thrust as in hip thrust is often translated as:

  冲刺

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

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

What're you doing, translating erotic stories? How about 抽插？

The guy at the club kept humping my leg on the dance floor.

在俱乐部舞池的地板上那个家伙不停地在我脚上抽插着。

A slap in the face is called for!


Academic explanation for rhyming fillers with irrelevant meaning in doggerel 在打油诗、顺口溜、儿歌里经常有纯粹是为了押韵或节拍而插入的和文意无关的词汇。在北方话、传统北京/天津评书相声里尤甚。我想知道在语言学专业里这种情况是怎么解释的，有没有术语或相关资料。

例如北京顺口溜：

  嗝屁着凉大海棠，脚不丫子蘸白糖。

里“大海棠”完全是为押韵，无意义；蘸白糖虽然略有意义，但选词十分随机，更多是为了一种插科打诨的效果。

Brief translation:

It's common to hear rhyming filler words without a relevant meaning being used in doggerel/jingles, especially in Northern China dialects and traditional Beijing/Tianjin storytelling and cross talk performances. I am wondering if there are linguistic terminologies, theories or reading materials around this.

(The example is a Beijing doggerel. The point won't hold after translation.)

Regarding "The point won't hold after translation", maybe the words in this poem are relevant:

See you later, alligator!

After while, crocodile!

In an hour, sunflower!

Maybe two, kangaroo!

Gotta go, buffalo!

Adios, hippos!

Chow, chow, brown cow!

See you soon, baboon!

Adieu, cockatoo!

Better swish, jellyfish.

Chop chop, lollipop.

Gotta run, skeleton!

Bye-bye, butterfly!

Better shake, rattle snake.

Our school day now ends.

So, good-bye, good friends!

There are no meaning of these words,just to make them sounds better.There are no rules of adding words to make sentences more beautiful or poem more rhyming,as I know, just depends the need.sometimes the word doesn't read as it's original pronunciation,to make doggerel or song sound better,This can find in JINGJU：Beijing Opera.

淮河营

此时间不可闹笑话，胡言乱语怎瞒咱

“咱“should read as "zán".but in the Opera it read as "zá",with melody.


Does 一屁股坐下来 just mean 'sit down' or is there some other meaning in there? 一屁股坐下来 seems a bit of a strange thing to say. Does it just mean 'sit down'?

Can I say to you '一屁股坐下来' to you to invite you to sit?

In English, as a command, I might say 'sit your arse down!' (stay there, don't move)

The literal meaning of 一屁股坐下来 is "sit down with one move of one's butt". It is a description of a manner which implies "abruptly with no hesitation"

There are similar adverbial phrases:

一手 (with one move of one's hand)

一手搶過我手中的香煙 (with one move of his hand, he grabs the cigarette off my hand = he takes the cigarette off my hand with one move of his hand)

一腳 (with one move of one's foot)

一腳把球射入龍門 (with one strike of his foot, he kicked the ball into the goal = he kicks the ball into the goal with a single strike)

"一屁股坐下来" would mean "he sits down with one move of his butt ", therefore it can be described simply as "sit down abruptly (with no hesitation)"

"One move" implies "one(quick/sudden)move"

哈哈，作为中国人，我给你解答一下，“一屁股坐下来”就是“坐下来的速度很快（原因：受到惊吓，或者震惊产生的反应）” someone sits down faster cause he is scary or shocked.


What is the appropriate response to "Your Chinese is so good!" A lot of the time, Chinese people will respond to a foreigner speaking Chinese with "wow your Chinese is so good!" What is a polite way to respond without sounding rude or full of yourself? Especially when you have studied Chinese for multiple years and you would like to just have a normal conversation.

是嗎？ (or 有嗎？ or 真的嗎？) 我覺得沒有很好吔。
Really? I do not think it's very good.
Really? I don't think my Chinese is very good.

or

沒有啦！謝謝你。
No. Thank you.
Not at all. Thank you.

You don't have to worry about this.
It's just like somebody asks a foreigner, "Where are you from?".

I like the "you flatter me" response but since I just learned the phrase here I say 不太好。It seems to work.  And it's true!


When to use 住在 and when to use just 住? I have encountered the following sentences:

以前人们住这样的房子
现在人们住这样的房子

Why do these sentences NOT use 住在? I have learned that 住 takes 在 in order to take the location noun after that.
Or maybe is it a chance that 住 carries completely different meanings from  住在, and the both are grammatically correct?

I am a native Chinese speaker. We say "住这样的房子" or "住在这样的房子里". These two are both correct, and they mean the same thing.

"住在这样的房子" sounds wrong to me."住这样的房子里" may be correct but sounds weird.

As you may have already known, the time "以前" or "现在" do not affect the form of the verb.

Hope this helps!

I think the difference is the focus of the sentence. I'll give an example of what I mean:

  我住这里。

The natural breakdown of this in speech would be like:我住 - 这里

The focus is on the action of you living here.

  我住在这里。

Here, the natural breakdown of the sentence is like: 我 - 住在 - 这里

This breakdown is a bit different. The "you" is separated by the gaps in sentence from the action of living here. I think it puts greater emphasis on the "you".

To go back to the original question:

以前人们住这样的房子

现在人们住这样的房子

The important part of these sentences isn't the people themselves, new or old, but the fact that they live in a certain type of house. And so, I think it makes more sense to use 住 instead of 住在.


Is there a word for "kosher"? I'm looking for a translation of the word kosher in it's most strict sense: a food that is apt according to the jewish law.

Google translates kosher as 犹太, but if I'm not mistaken, that just means "jewish". And you can certainly make non-kosher jewish food.

Depending on the context, there are different strategies for translating this word. In the most strict sense, leaving nothing unsaid, it is （符）合犹太教规的 when it comes to food preparation. If reference to 犹太教 isn't essential to the context, it can simply be 合礼法的, because the notion of doing things according to 礼法 is prevalent in Chinese culture.

you can use "犹太式的" for kosher， "式" means style， or "犹太风格的" for the same meaning


What is this 所 here? This is the sad story of a little piece of gold that wants to shine but can't, so it 哭泣着。

小石头也想：“是金子在哪儿都发光。” 于是他日夜吸收天地之精华，把自己沖涤得闪闪发亮，终究又被脏东西所掩盖。

终究又被脏东西所掩盖。in the end by dirty things 所 covered up

What should I do with 所 here？？ Just ignore it? Maybe it means 'all covered up'??

http://www.zdic.net/z/1a/xs/6240.htm

  ◎ 所 suǒ

  〈助〉

  (1) 表示结构 [used before a verb or a V-C construction together with 被 or
  为 to indicate the passive voice]

For translation, you could just ignore it:

In the end covered up by dirty things again.

As to the meaning and 所, I agree with songyuanyao. just want to say something about how to use this 所 in Chinese.
1 所 is more used in written Chinese and classic Chinese.
2 In daily conversation we use “被“.


Difference between 元宵节 and 灯节？ Is there a difference between the expressions 元宵节 and  灯节, or are they exactly the same?

元宵節

  亦稱為上元節、小正月、元夕、小年或春燈節。
  時間是每年的農曆正月十五。
  佛教有在正月十五點燈供佛的習俗。
  而道教中，上元節乃天官華誕，故燃燈以慶。

元：上元 (農曆正月十五，the 15th of the 1st lunar month)
宵：夜晚 (night, evening)
元宵：the evening of the 15th of the 1st lunar month

Lantern: 燈
Festival: 節
Lantern Festival: 燈節

元宵節的由來英文介紹

  The Lantern Festival falls on the 15th day of the 1st lunar month, usually in February or March in the Gregorian calendar. As early as the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 25), it had become a festival with great significance. This day's important activity is watching lanterns. Throughout the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), Buddhism flourished in China. One emperor heard that Buddhist monks would watch sarira, or remains from the cremation of Buddha's body, and light lanterns to worship Buddha on the 15th day of the 1st lunar month, so he ordered to light lanterns in the imperial palace and temples to show respect to Buddha on this day. Later, the Buddhist rite developed into a grand festival among common people and its influence expanded from the Central Plains to the whole of China.

  每年農曆的正月十五日，春節剛過，迎來的就是中國的傳統節日--元宵節。元宵節主要的活動就是看燈。東漢明帝時期，明帝提倡佛教，聽說佛教有正月十五日僧人觀佛舍利，點燈敬佛的做法，就命令這一天夜晚在皇宮和寺廟裡點燈敬佛，令士族庶民都掛燈。以後這種佛教禮儀節日逐漸形成民間盛大的節日。該節經歷了由宮廷到民間，由中原到全國的發展過程。

元宵节和灯节其实是一样的，两种称呼而已。这一天人们通常会猜灯谜、赏花灯。


减/減 (Reduce/Subtract/Decrease/Diminish): What's it got to do with water? So here we have 冫+咸 (or 氵+咸) = 减(減).

减(減) means something along the lines of reduce/subtract/decrease/diminish or what have you.

What has water got to do with this though?

Logically one would imagine 冫 (water) + 咸 (salty) = a reducing of flavor, thus giving reduce/subtract/etc.

ShuoWen: (說文解字):

  損也從水咸聲

Chinese Etymology

  Phonetic Signific, of water 氵水 - can pour out of - decrease

So what's the deal?

What's going on here?

I think both "減" and "咸" exists in the ancient times, but for certain reasons scholars like to use "咸" in place of "減".

損也,從水,咸聲 == It has the same meaning as '損', water as glyph component, and the same pronunciation as '咸'.

In 管子·宙合, which was written before the early Han Dynasty, it says "左操五音，右執五味，懷繩與准鉤，多備規軸，減 溜大成，是唯時德之節。 .... 減，盡也。溜，發也。 ...."

咸 doesn’t mean salty here.

The word “salty” in traditional Chinese is 鹹. The left component 鹵(lǔ) is pictographic for the halides (actually the halides carried by a pouch). And the right component 咸(xián) is phonetic in this case. So 鹹 pronounced xián.

From traditional to simplified, 鹹 omitted the left component to 咸 retaining the pronunciation. But this character means “all” originally.

减 is irrelevant with any flavor. It is “water” + “all”.

So, you can think about that the water flux takes off a part of all, such as a tiny piece of a big rock in the river. This is reduce/substrate/decrease/diminish.


Difference between these words What's the difference between these pairs of words? My book doesn't give a clear distinction between them.

如果 - 要是

必须 - 要

报名 - 注册

查 - 检查

读书 - 看书

These are similar terms just as their english counterparts:

如果 - In case
要是 - If

必须 - Necessary
要 - Need / require

报名 - Sign up
注册 - Register

查 - Check / Search
检查 - inspection

读书 - Reading (in terms of Studying)
看书 - Read a book

如果 - 要是: almost same, 如果 formal language, 要是 oral language.----

必须 - 要: 必须 is "must" very strong, 要 is "shall" not strong.----

报名 - 注册 same

查 - 检查 same, 查 is a short one of 检查

读书 - 看书  same


How to say "giving someone the benefit of the doubt" in Chinese? This expression connotes that one is willing to not insist on accusing someone of a mistake despite most evidence pointing to that someone as being responsible. As in a legal proceeding where the jury feel there is a reasonable doubt the defendant transgressed the law Or.More colloquially, when not understanding why someone took a certain action or made a decision that impacted others negatively, this expression means one doesn't impute bad motive on the someone.  For example, someone says something very insensitive to you that hurts you, it might be a delicate situation or something very personal. If you give them the benefit of the doubt you don't feel they had bad motive but were trying to help or encourage.

How can I express this in Chinese?

I think "寧縱勿枉" best fits the description.
It literally means not enforcing justice ("縱" as in "縱容") for fear of accusing someone wrongly ("枉" as in "冤枉"). The opposite phrase is "寧枉勿縱". Note that the sayer does not necessarily forgive the suspect here.

沒有實質證據證明銀包是小明偷的，寧縱勿枉，此事就算了吧。 (There's no direct evidence proving Ming stole the wallet, giving him the benefit of doubt, let's be done with this.)

I think "無心之失" is applicable for the second description.
It means one is not intended for the mistake made.

雖然他這樣做是不對，但我相信只是 無心之失，你不要責怪他吧。 (It's not right for him to have done that, but I beleive he doesn't mean it, don't blame him, okay?)

EDIT: added examples, sorry that the English translation may not be the best.
The OP also updated the question so I think the answer here is more appropriate.

There is no Chinese translation for "benefit of doubt." Few Chinese people realize this. Doubt is an alien concept. There is no Chinese word for "doubt."

An accurate translation should reveal the relation between the lack of evidence and the suspension of judgement. This relation is the essence of the word "doubt."


How many characters do I need to learn? How many Chinese characters would I generally need to learn to be able to handle most text in typical every day circumstances?

How many would be required to be considered fluent?

Are there any good resources for learning the most commonly used characters?

Depending on how 'in touch' with the language (in terms of understanding grammatical constructions and context clues) you may be considered fairly fluent with 80% or so character recognition

Think about your vocabulary in English.  If you pick up a book with many words you don't know, you may still be able to comprehend it based on the context of the words that you might not know.  Same applies for Chinese.

If you are interested in numbers and facts, here are the results of some studies:

Cumulative Character Frequency for the Top N Characters based on two studies (Huang 1994 and Da 2004)

Top 250 characters: 64.4% / 57.1%

Top 500 characters: 79.2 / 72.1%

Top 1000 characters: 91.1 / 86.2%

Top 1500 characters: 95.7 / 92.4%

Top 2000 characters: 97.9 / 95.6%

Top 3000 characters: 99.4 / 98.3%

The above table tells us that the top 1000 characters account for between 86% and 91% of the characters occurring in the real world. Assuming, with great hope, that there is a good correlation between the top 1000 characters found in these studies and the 1000 characters that most second year college students are supposed to master, we can conclude that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Finally, while we wouldn't advocate studying characters solely based on their high frequency, we believe that studying such lists is a reasonable supplement to conventional study programs. Such lists also provide a sense of just where one is on the path to full Chinese literacy.

The results from the above studies have been used to generate two different sets of flashcards.

The Top 1000 Traditional Characters is based on C .H. Tsai's combined 1993–1994 data.
The Top 1000 Simplified Characters is based on Jun Da's combined classical and modern Chinese data, which has the advantage of being based on more recent data as well as more formal publications.

Source: http://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/topchars.php

Counting the characters doesn't make sense at all. It doesn't really say much about your proficiency.


Is there an authoritative list of most frequent to most infrequent pronunciations for individual Chinese characters? I'm working on a dictionary tool that provides, as an auto-assist, transcription of Chinese characters into corresponding (Modern Standard Mandarin) pinyin+tones on a naive, character-per-character basis without lexical parsing (the tool is intended for indexing of new terms/phrases, lexical parsing is overkill).

In order to make the auto-assist feature as useful as possible, I would like the assisted-transcription operation to choose the most frequent reading [1] of any individual character as the preferred default in an effort to reduce the amount of time users will spend correcting the inevitable [2] mistakes.

Python's pinyin package, based on Mandarin.dat, seems to provide reasonably good performance in that regard; but I'm curious whether there's a standard (issued by a language authority in PRC or Taiwan) list of such frequencies available, and/or whether any list exists that includes the other possible readings, in decreasing order of frequency, by way of providing a helpful dropdown list of alternates in cases where the preferred reading doesn't happen to be correct.

[1] i.e., assuming a large and representative set of textual data, if a character has multiple possible readings, the pronunciation most often assigned the character based on more advanced lexical analysis of the function of the character within a larger semantic block. For example, if within the set there are three observed instances of 为[wei4]什么 and one observed instance of 作为[wei2], choose "wei4" as the default transcription option for 为.

[2] I'm aware of characters such as 调 for which alternate readings (in this case diao4/tiao2) are equally likely, so in these cases such "assistance" will likely never have an accuracy rate better than 50%.

Hope these would help.

《现代汉语常用字表》常用字(2500字)
《现代汉语常用字表》次常用字(1000字)
《现代汉语通用字表》(7000字) - including the above two (link available on those pages)

Although I'm not able to find authoritative references for pronunciation for every characters, I do find a dictionary website where you can put in the pinyin, and it will show you all the characters with that pinyin with 5 different tones.
http://xh.5156edu.com/html2/c15.html
 And here is all the pinyin:

  b  ba bo bai bei bao ban ben bang beng bi bie biao bian bin bing p  pa
  po pai pao pou pan pen pang peng pi pie piao pian pin ping m  ma mo me
  mai mao mou man men mang meng mi mie miao miu mian min ming f  fa fo
  fei fou fan fen fang feng d  da de dai dei dao dou dan dang deng di
  die diao diu dian ding t ta te tai tao tou tan tang teng ti tie tiao
  tian ting n  na nai nei nao no nen nang neng ni nie niao niu nian nin
  niang ning l  la le lai lei lao lou lan lang leng li lia lie liao liu
  lian lin liang ling g  ga ge gai gei gao gou gan gen gang geng k  ka
  ke kai kou kan ken kang keng h ha he hai hei hao hou hen hang heng j
  ji jia jie jiao jiu jian jin jiang jing q qi qia qie qiao qiu qian qin
  qiang qing x  xi xia xie xiao xiu xian xin xiang xing zh zha zhe zhi
  zhai zhao zhou zhan zhen zhang zheng ch cha che chi chai chou chan
  chen chang cheng sh sha she shi shai shao shou shan shen shang sheng r
  re ri rao rou ran ren rang reng z  za ze zi zai zao zou zang zeng c
  ca ce ci cai cao cou can cen cang ceng s sa se si sai sao sou san sen
  sang seng y  ya yao you yan yang yu ye yue yuan yi yin yun ying w  wa
  wo wai wei wan wen wang weng wu


Where is the verb in reduplication of adjectives "Noun + Adj + Adj + 的"? I understand the 的 from the structure:

Adj + 的
Example: 高的。

as attaching the Adj to an omitted Noun. This omitted Noun can either be a general noun such as "one/s" (高的 can mean the tall one) or an implied Noun from the context (if the topic is a boy, 高的 could mean a tall boy).

I have come across the following structure for reduplication of adjectives:
Noun + Adj + Adj + 的.
For example:

他的儿子高高的。
His son is tall.

Question: Because Adj + Adj + 的 is attached to an omitted noun, it becomes a nominal phrase and grammatically Noun + Adj + Adj + 的 is equal to Noun + Nominal Phrase. Where is the verb and predicate in this sentence? Is the verb copula 是 omitted but implied in connecting the nouns：Noun +（是）+ Adj + Adj + 的？From the example: 他的儿子（是）高高的？

Edit: My original post addressed the question focusing on the function of 的. However, the question of why 的 was necessary in reduplication of adjectives, instead of (Adv of degree) + Adj + Adj, was already asked in Adverbs of degree with reduplicated adjective phrases?

EDIT:
blackgreen's answer reminded me that the noun in “Noun + Adj + Adj + 的” is not the subject of a [SVO] sentence but the topic of a [topic + comment] sentence.
There are two ways to interpret which is the topic in 他脸红红的

[他(的)脸 (topic)] [红红的 (comment)] = [his face (topic)] [is very red (comment)]

[他 (topic)] [脸红红的 (comment)] = [he (topic)] [is red-faced (comment)]

Either way, 的 is acting as an adjective marker that marks 红红 as an adjective. and the 是 (is) between the topic and the comment is omitted
As for the rest of the explanation, I cannot explain it better than blackgreen did, so I am not going to try.
Different example:

[關羽的脸 (topic)][(是)红红的 (comment)] = [Guan Yu's face (topic)][(is) very red (comment)]

[關羽 (topic)][脸红红的 (comment)] = [Guan Yu (topic)][(is) red-faced (comment)]

Example of using 红红的 in SVO sentences:

[關羽][有] [一張红红的脸]
[Guan Yu (S)] [has (V)] [a very red face (O)]

你的 is an adjective.
你的脸 = your face
红红的 = very red
你脸红红的像一颗苹果！
My advice: don't take the blatherings of Aunty Wiki too seriously!

In Chinese, possession is marked with the particle 的 (de), placed
after the "owner" noun or noun phrase.

你圆圆的脸晒得红红的。下次散步的话，戴上你去年买的斗笠。
的 does not equate to 's. The genitive is always an adjective.


What is the meaning of 背会? I have encountered the following sentences in my textbook, which use 背会.

我还没背会这篇文章。
今天不背会这篇课文就不回家。

But what does 背会 mean? The textbook seems to say it means memorize, but of all the dictionaries I have and from the result I googled, it seems that there is no word registered as 背会.
Anyone can clarify it...?

背会 and 会背 are not the same.

背会 verb + result, memorize/recite it until you know it (by heart)

会背 auxiliary verb + verb, able to recite from memory

我还没背会这篇文章。

I still have not learned this essay by heart yet.

今天不背会这篇课文就不回家。

I won't go home until I've learned this text by heart today.

会 - in this context, it is translated as "can", "be able to"

背 - in this context, it is translated as "remember"

背会 can be used as 会背, which both are the same, if that makes more sense to you


What's the difference between "现在几点" and "现在几点了” In the textbook, I saw both "现在几点？" and "现在几点了？"
I know they are both correct and "了" often indicates past tense, but what's the difference here?
I think it would be really good if I can look up the usage of "了". But I didn't find any good online dictionary.

了 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/460/
[2] [final particle] indicating change of situation

"现在是下午五點" = "It is 5:00 pm now."

"现在是下午五點(了)" = "It is 5:00pm now" (final particle 了 indicates 'the current time has reached 5:00pm'. Situation changed from 'not yet 5:00pm' to 'is 5:00pm' )

Similarly:

"现在几点？" = "What time is it now?"

"现在几点了？" = "What time is it now?" (final particle 了 indicates 'what time the current time has reached'. Situation changed from 'not yet the current time' to 'is the current time' )

The final particle 了 is mostly used to soften the tone of a sentence to make it less blunt. Also it formally indicates the sentence is 'completed' (that's why it is called 'final particle').

对于我来说，没有区别，加“了”更适合日常习惯，没有也可以。
我是一个普通的中国人。


How does a foreigner's handwriting look to a native? How do Chinese characters foreigners or beginner Chinese learners write appear to natives?  Is there a difference?  Does it depend on how long they have been learning, or are they all different from a native Chinese's handwriting?  Would the handwriting even strike a native as a foreigner's penning at all?  And how about a beginner's handwriting?
Alright, those are all my questions.

It does require a lot of effort. Some Chinese/Taiwanese natives might write worse than non-natives. It all depends on how much time and effort you'd like to put in. First, find the writing you like, and just copy it as many times as it takes for you to write the same thing. It's the same as practice calligraphy really.
As Taiwanese native, we write traditional characters. And I seriously cannot remember how many times I wrote the characters while learning... A LOT for sure XD
Good luck!

It is almost impossible. As a native, I was still be required to have the practice in my senior high school by my teacher. Do not give up. Have your paractice patiently and regularly. Maybe 5 years or 8 years, you will find your own way to write every character. And when you find that your same Chinese characters look almost same, then you might begin to have native handwriting. For now, just keep your handwriting clear and neat.


How to say "we want what is best for our kids"? I'd like to say the above sentence.

I can't think anything but the following sentence, but it just doesn't sit right with me somehow:

  我们都要对我们的孩子最好.

While the subject "what's best" in english seems ok without any tangible object associated with it, in Chinese it sounds a little unfinished.

Can anyone think of the correct, most chinese way of saying this?

我们要把最好的给我们的孩子

I think most Chinese parents would rather use this expression:
我们望子成龙

望子成龙 has this meaning: lit. to hope one's son becomes a dragon (idiom); fig. to long for one' s child to succeed in life; to have great hopes for one's offspring; to give one's child the best education as a career investment

It has more emphasis on succeeding in life, while "the best" is more open, and can also refer to happiness. This because most Chinese people have different values and aspirations for there children than most westerners (I'm generalizing here).

我是中国人，我觉得按照英语语法来说应该是“我们要给我们孩子最好的东西”
    i'm a native chinese,according to the english grammer,the meaning of "we want what is best for our kids" is "give(for) our kids the best thing that we want".just like the first line.
    By the way, i have learnt english grammer for nearly 8 years.


What's an appropriate conversational response to 这是什么？ In English, if someone points to a book and says "What's that?", "A book" is a sufficient reply. In Chinese, if someone points to a book and says "这是什么？", can you say "书" or maybe "一本书"? What's the most natural and conversational response?

Most often, I would repeat 这是, so if you would ask me 这是什么? I would say 这是一本书. You can also say 一本书. But you can also just say 书.

Just 书 is enough. This is the most natural to answer such a question, and no need to say more.


How do I type  on a keyboard? I am using the Google Cantonese Input and Google Pinyin Input on my phone and cannot find a way to type .  Even when I switch to the handwriting method,  does not come up as an option and I get them separated as 門小 instead.

How would I type  with Pin Yin or Yale/Jyutping input?  For now, I'm just using 屌你 instead of 你.  Otherwise, I would have to copy and paste  and it gets annoying.

One could always argue that if you find it annoying to copy/paste , you're using it too much, and should clean up your vocabulary :-)
It all depends on the platform you're using. I'm on a Mac (laptop) and Android (phone/tablet). On my Mac, I have customized an old Jyutping IME by Dominic Yu, based on the LSHK table. I added  (and many other things) to the IME. You can get it here.
On my Android, I use MultiLing, which is good in most cases, but its fuzzy logic makes it very hard to input single-syllable words that are not common (at least in their idea of common). I usually resort, for such characters, to trying first pinyin, then Japanese, or, if everything fails, hand-writing.
EDIT
On MultiLing, typing diunei gives 屌你, which is the fastest way I found to type 屌 – if 你 isn't needed just erase it.

Use the handwriting keyboard or 屌 is fine.


What is the meaning of 怼回去? I came across a comment:

巴西柔术被误以为女子防身术, 怎么怼回去

What is the meaning of 怎么怼回去?

怼 is fairly new internet slang.
MDBG defines it as:

怼
duǐ
(Internet slang) to attack verbally / to publicly criticize / to call out

notice: it is read in the third tone here and basically means to lay into.
With the rise of popularity of 怼, many new words came out and have started popping up everywhere.
Not to get off topic too much, but another common new word is 怒怼.
MDBG:

怒怼
nùduǐ
(Internet slang) to chastise / to angrily denounce

This hopefully gives a better overall view of what 怼 actually means.
Another new word, that would answer your question more clearly, that has come out is 回怼:
MDBG

回怼
huíduǐ
to retaliate verbally / to hit back (at critics)

So back to your question:

怎么怼回去?

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu has been attacked and now they’re asking how to retaliate or how to hit back at their attackers.

怼= 懟 as in 怨懟 (resent; resentment )

  https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E6%80%BC/4505099

  怼是一个汉语字，拼音为duì，基本意思是会意字，说文，心部，从对声。对，相持也，意为互相对峙，底下加“心”，表示心里抵触，对抗。引申为怨恨，故而怼，怨也。(therefore 怼 means 'resent')

'对' in '怼' means '对抗' (to confront)
'心' in '怼' indicates 'from the heart; emotionally; mentally'
'怼' means 'resent'
'怼回去' seems to mean  'respond with bitter confrontation'


Is there a grammar rule for using 的 in this snippet 但是有意思的是? As I understand ...,但是有意思的是,... means ..., but the interesting thing is, ... but I went through great pains to arrive at this. The culprit here that jammed the cranks in my head was the 的. Had it not been there I might have just inferred that meaning and carry on assuming that the thing in interesting thing was implicit or the phrase was something akin to but what's interesting is.

What's 的 doing here?

I'd also be grateful for another example showing the same rule in action.

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

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

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

Consider this sentence:

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

Let's analyse it:

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

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

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

“的”的用法是：①部分n＋的＝adj
adj修饰n／v
②省略一些词语
such as:美丽的蝴蝶  美丽＝n   美丽的＝adj  蝴蝶＝n  美丽的修饰（modifier）蝴蝶
                     ——莫道不销魂，帘卷西风，人比黄花瘦。


Why was the rice component added to 气 to form 氣? 气 is an ancient character that has roots in an oracle bone pictogram, but according to this, the rice radical was added in the Tang dynasty to form 氣.

What were the reasons for this? What does 气, meaning gas, air or life force, have to do with rice?

Note: this question is not about traditional vs simplified.

說文解字 has both references for 氣 and 气.

Put simply, 气 and 氣 comes from different origin and somehow merge together into one stream later.

In detail: 米 is not added to 气 to get 氣 in Tang Dynasty. Long time ago, 氣 appears in the form of Bronze inscription, though different meaning as 气. 氣 is originally designed to mean the "air generated from digesting food". While 气 is originally designed to mean the physical gas. In the reference of 氣, "饋客芻米也" means "氣 is a verb, showing the action of giving guest fodder (芻, chu2) and rice (米) as gift." 饋 (kui4) is "to give someone gift". 氣 with this meaning later becomes 餼 to clarify the action relating to food.

So nowadays, in Taiwan, 氣為餼之異體 (氣 is another non-standard variant of 餼). Also, according the 教育部異體字字典 气為氣之異體 (气 is another non-standard variant of 氣). In China mainland, 氣 is replaced by 气 as standard.

In my opinion,the rice is a kind of food. If someone don't eat anything,he will dead,and no longer  breath. So, if no food,then no breath.
My english is not good. Hope to help you .


Trust/Believe : “信任” vs “相信” How is the usage of 信任 and 相信 different ？ According to my understanding the scope of 信任 is more than the scope of 相信 . For example if we are talking about a person or a few people , we might say 我相信你 but for countries we might use it as 美国信任韩国. Is that correct or are there other usages ?

I'm not a native Chinese speaker but I've always used 相信 to mean believe (related to truth/falsity) and 信任 to mean trust/confidence (related to success/failure).
我相信你 I believe you. I believe what you just said. I think you are telling the truth. I don't think you are lying.
我信任你 I trust you. I trust in your ability. I have faith in you. You won't let me or yourself down. I am confident that you will succeed. I am confident that you will not fail.

「相信」这一词指的是对某件具体的事情，「信任」指的是对某一个人


Past 了 used with a simple object I've read in many grammars and have seen in many places that, when we have a verb-了, its object has to be a complex one (taking a number, an attribute, etc.), for example:

  我吃了一个苹果。
  我吃了那个红苹果。

These grammars also state that when the object is a simple one, the only possible and correct 了 would be a sentence 了 or a double 了, as in:

  我吃苹果了。 (ambiguous)
  我吃了苹果了。

But I have heard and seen in many places people saying (and accepting) sencences like:

  我吃了苹果。

Once, a native Chinese friend of mine said that when he heard these two sentences:

  我吃了苹果。
  我吃苹果了。

He felt that in the former he knew what apple was being talked about. After that I started to wonder if it would be possible to accept sentences with a simple object and if the verb-了 in those cases would define the object in the same sense as the 把 structure does.

Any comment would be appreciated.

我吃了苹果。
我吃苹果了。

In practice, both sentences are applicable depending on the context. See these examples:

A: 你吃了什么东西？
B: 我吃了苹果。
A: 你吃什么了？
B: 我吃苹果了。

Chinese does not differentiate between singular and plural nouns as English does. Unless specified, a noun does not imply singular nor plural by default. Thus,

我吃了苹果 （我吃苹果了）

can mean "I ate an apple" or "I ate two apples" or even "I ate half an apple".

The grammar you mentioned is unknown to Chinese native speakers.  "了" when coming after a verb implies past tense, nothing less, nothing more.


了解 vs 明白 vs 知道 - what is the difference, and when should I use each one? 了解, 明白, and 知道 seem to be fairly synonymous in Mandarin, but there does seem to be some subtle differences between them.

What exactly is the difference? When should I use each one? Could you give me an example sentence to show when each of these terms would be the most appropriate?

知道 means you just know something, you don't need to understand it.
了解, you understand it.
明白, you understand something, and have a clear idea of what it is about.

I think the order of them is: 知道<了解<=明白

for 了解, it can also means 'to investigate'. e.g 小白, 你去了解一下这事情怎么发生的.

知道 = Know

了解 = Know clearly

明白 = Know completely


When is it appropriate to use 剩女? For the average Chinese woman approaching the age of 27-30, getting married is a fairly high priority, and a large motivating factor to this is the cultural pressure of avoiding becoming a 剩女, or leftover woman.

The word is used often enough in news articles and television when talking about girls who are nearing this tragic fate, but when, if ever, would a person specifically refer to someone directly as a 剩女? It's obviously not a compliment, but in regards to culture in Mainland China, could it ever be used jokingly (你今年都25岁了，快会变成剩女吧)? Or when concerned about a friend's future (你现在不年轻了，你要快点结婚，不然变成剩女)?

So when, if ever, can someone explicitly refer to someone as a 剩女?

In my opinion, it is usually offensive to call someone 剩女 in the face, even when joking. Of course there might be exceptions, for example, a senior family member may possibly use the word 剩女 to urge a child to prioritize marriage, but even in this case the person referred to may feel offended. My advice is to use other expressions that are more euphemistic.

Id say spinster old maid, or bachelorette as a joke maybe, but it doesn't quite fit the context... there's no comparable word because we don't necessary have the same societal pressure applied in the same way.


What is the difference between 怎么 and 如何？ Is it mostly a question of register?

Normally, 怎么 is more oral than 如何. 如何 can be read in much ancient literature, and it can also be used in formal documents, but that is too formal.

You may express "How about that?" saying:

  如何？

There is an idiom 如何是好, which expresses "What/How should I do?".

Actually, I believe both "怎么" and "如何" have multiple senses. So you'd better to look up a thesaurus or specify which sense you are referring here.


How do I know when I am "fluent"? What in a common test for fluency in Chinese?

Is it when I can;

talk to a shopkeeper
converse meaningfully about a film
do business purely in Chinese
pass HSK6

When my friends ask I don't know what to say.

Here's my two cents.

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

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

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

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


Is there a dictionary that includes word collocations (词语搭配)? Is there a decent dictionary that includes word collocations (词语搭配), or words that the searched word cannot be used with?
I use Pleco, but one of my largest complaints with it is that there's really no baseline for how the words are used, other than the few example sentences that are provided. With Pleco, there is no good way to determine when to use 维持、维护、保持、持续、etc, or any of the subtle differences between 实习、实践、进行、实行, etc.

http://xh.5156edu.com/ provides the possibility to search for a single character and then getting the most common words with it.

Pleco gives better results for this if you look up the English word you want.  For example, in your case you already know 练习 and 实习 so you are looking those up and trying to figure out which one to use.  But if you look up "practice" in Pleco and look under the DICT or WORDS tabs it's much easier to see the differences.


What is this character? I would like to know what this necklace means, thank you

It's 寿（in simplified Chinese）: old age, long life; lifespan. It is used for expressing best wishes: wish people who wear it to have a good long life.

See Ref on Wikipedia.

这是一个寿字，多用来祝福老年朋友们身体健康，比如：健康长寿，您今年高寿?


How to say 索尼大法好 in English? I didn't know what 大法 means. I did some google search and all the answers were "Dafa".

But I didn't think it is correct. What does it mean exactly?

索尼 is Sony.
大法 is borrowed from Falungong's 法轮大法.

The inventor of this saying might want to gave people some ideas on how Sony's fans follow Sony's industrial design.

How about translate to Sony cult supremacy or Sony sect supremacy?

I think the accurate translation is Sony is the best


Why can't I say "我的腰不好” My teacher said it wasn't a good thing to say - why? For example, my back really hurt - is this not what I should have said?

How do I express that my lower back hurts?

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

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

you can say “我的腰受伤了”，but whether you say use any method，“我的腰不好”can bring misunderstand. the best way voice this thing,you can detailed description of how to hurt your waist.
for example ,“我昨天摔了一跤，把腰摔伤了。”it means “yesterday i had been tripped, lead my waist injured”.


Other than ChinaSMACK, do any other glossaries of acronyms used in Chinese, like PK, ZF, GCD, TMD, JC, etc exist? This is the ChinaSMACK glossary. Wondering how outdated it is. Would something more up to date and/or more comprehensive exist, or this is pretty much it?

Edit: Found This from Baidu. Very useful, but not much in the way of explanations.

As someone involved in chinaSMACK, I wouldn't say the glossary is "outdated" since the terms on there were notable enough in our translations of trending Chinese internet content that we decided they should be added.

It is, however, far from comprehensive, precisely because we only tend to add to it as a consequence of the terms we see often while translating. We don't go out of our way to add to it, since it is meant to serve as a reference to supplement our translated content. For example, if a Chinese netizen comment includes the acronym LZ, we can just leave it as "LZ" in our translation and instead link that "LZ" to its entry in the glossary. We feel this allows to keep some of the form and flavor of the original in our translations, rather than just translating it directly to "original poster" (which is what LZ simply means).

I suppose we don't delete stuff that is no longer as commonly seen ("My dad is Li Gang") and thus they might seem "outdated" but because we have content that links to those entries, we leave them in and figure they are still notable for having been popular at a point in time.

If you want another resource that is also in English, check out the Grass Mud Horse Lexicon by China Digital Times:

http://chinadigitaltimes.net/space/Grass-Mud_Horse_Lexicon
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/space/Introduction_to_the_Grass-Mud_Horse_Lexicon

Note: CDT is blocked by the GFW in mainland China.

CDT built this quite awhile after chinaSMACK had its Glossary. It used to use Wiki software (doesn't seem to anymore) and, to be honest, I remember it feeling more comprehensive than it looks now that I'm revisiting it. I can't post more than two links so look for the search by alphabetical order page as well.

If you look through their categorical organization and list of terms, you'll notice a strong emphasis on cataloging terms involving stuff that appears more in circles discussing politics, censorship, and dissidence. This is because of CDT's editorial focus, whereas chinaSMACK tends to focus more on mainstream Chinese internet culture. For example, there doesn't seem to be an entry for 熊孩子 (naughty/unruly kids) though it is currently a common internet slang term both in terms of humor as well as referencing certain social issues involving children.

Hope this helps!

P.S. Sorry if it doesn't help if you're looking specifically for acronyms. Acronyms are often just of the Chinese word in pinyin, and weren't created or used specifically to be acronyms or shorthand but to avoid censorship of certain characters/terms. For example, the use of GCD (共产党) is different in nature than YOLO (You Only Live Once). The latter could be said to be a way of shortening a catchphrase, but the former was designed to avoid filters or searches for the actual Chinese characters.

you need to know：china is no have internet freedom！

PK（like “VS” or （Player versus player，PvP））

ZF  （政府，ZhengFu，“gov“）

GCD （共产党，GongChanDang，https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/共产党）

TMD （他妈的，TaMaDe,like"WTF"）

JC  (警察，JingCha，is “police”)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_crab_%28Internet_slang%29


Distinction between 水果 and 果? On a certain website, the translation for fruit is 水果, but later on it tells me that it is also 果.
What is the distinction?

果 is the abstraction of all kinds of "production of flower". It could be fruit, or nut.

水果 means "juicy fruit" literally, but it could be any "production of flowers" which tastes delicious, e.g banana. But usually, people don't call nuts 水果, but 坚果 instead.

I'm chinese
“果”的多种含义
a．结出果实（水果：苹果，牛油果，香蕉，菠萝）；
b．事情的结局或成效（后果，结果）
c.果断（意思是很干脆）


Regional pronunciations of standard Mandarin When I first came to China, I was quite disappointed to find out that, in so many places, the colloquial pronunciation was so greatly different from the one I've studied so far. The phonological material, which is already rather limited in Mandarin (especially to my foreigner's semi-tone-deaf ears), seemed further reduced: I could no more distinguish shi from si, zhi from zi, chi from ci, and so on. More disturbing, many speakers appear to be totally unaware of any difference, and could pronounce 老师 as laoshi or laosi in the same breath. The problem started in Jinan (Shandong), only to get worse in Wuhan (Hubei) and Nanjing (Jiangsu), not to mention Chengdu (Sichuan).

I recently decided to try to overcome this difficulty by training my ear with a student of mine who comes from Xiangyang (Hubei). For our first course, I asked him to record several chosen stock sentences. I transcribe some of them below, with the standard pronunciation, followed by what I can hear (both in pinyin, which may be not precise enough for a die-hard linguist, sorry!).

你是什么时候到中国的？

Nǐ shì shénme shíhou dào zhōngguó de?
Nǐ sì sénme síhou dào zōngguó de?

我真诚感谢你的一切帮助。

Wǒ zhēnchéng gǎnxiè nǐ de yīqiè bāngzhù.
Wǒ zēncéng gǎnxiè nǐ de yīqiè bāngzù.

请仔细看看。

Qǐng zǐxì kàn kàn.
Xǐng zǐxì kàn kàn.

老师叫学生保持安静。

Lǎoshī jiào xuéshēng bǎochí ānjìng.
Lǎoshī jiào xuésēng bǎocí ānjìng.

(In the latter, please note the discrepancy in the pronunciation of sh.)

Now for my question. Do you know any resource (list, table), which clearly summarizes the main variations in the pronunciation of standard Mandarin (I'm not speaking of locale languages or dialects) in one or several given regions?

Update. I'm perfectly aware that most chinese people use both their local dialect and Mandarin depending on the situation. I'm not interested in learning or understanding their dialect. But I need to understand them when they think they speak a perfectly standard Mandarin. The fact is that their pronunciation has usually several non-standard aspects. I've given some examples, and Stumpy Joe Pete has kindly began to provide a list of general patterns, which is exactly what I'm looking for.

By the way, the very fact that Zhang Yao and Aw Qirui Guo, apparently both native speakers, thought my question was about local dialects, tells a lot about one of the greatest difficulties a foreigner encounters in such a situation: people don't realize that their pronunciation is non-standard, or consider that the differences are negligible and uninteresting. This explains probably why it's so difficult to find a simple list of correspondences like the one of Stumpy Joe Pete!

I can't think of any tables I've seen, but I can share some of the patterns I've encountered:

zh ch sh merge with z c s (or distinguished at random):

Almost everywhere in the south, at least among most speakers

n merges with l (conditioned on following vowel):

Sichuan, Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing, Nanjing, ...

h merges with f (conditioned on following vowel):

Some Sichuan?, Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing

final n merges with final ng

Jiangsu, Shanghai

r merges with l

Jiangxi? I've met several people like this, and 2 were from Jiangxi.

Something about mixing up j q x versus the z c s and the g k:

Guangdong, HK

Nowadays in mainland China, an increasing number of the younger generations are speaking standard mandarin.

I suggest it would be much easier to make friends with these people than to collect and make a list or table.

Keeping the local pronunciation is one part of saving the culture but popularization and learning of standard Mandarin is mandatory.


Is this sentence correct? "中国发送给我们国家很多帮助" 大家好!
Hi, can you please tell me is this sentence correct?
请问，这个句子对吗 ?:

在疫情其间中国发送给我们国家很多帮助。

谢谢 !

在疫情其(期)间中国发送给我们国家很多帮助。

The sentence is wrong.  The collocation 发送帮助 isn't appropriate.  We can say 给予帮助.  So, 在疫情其(期)间中国给予我们国家很多帮助 or  is correct.

在疫情期间中过帮助了我们的国家。 Is also okay. 发送 is used to say for physical objects.


Where can I find old HSK tests? I'd like to practice HSK based on tests from previous years, but have trouble finding them. Is there a place where those were collected for the general public?

The Internet is full of them, starting from https://www.confuciusinstitute.manchester.ac.uk/study/testing/hsk/hsk-learning-resources/

Buy them on taobao, or jd.com, about 60 Kuai a book, usually 8 exams I believe, with a CD for the listening part.
Just enter HSK and the number of the level you want.


How do you say "Do you speak Chinese?" in Mandarin and Cantonese? I realize that it is fairly easy to Google it but I'd never know how to pronounce it. Are there any audio recordings out there?

Mandarin

你会说汉语吗？ (Ni3 hui4 shuo1 han4 yu3 ma5)

Or polite form: 您会说汉语吗？(Nin2 hui4 shuo1 han4 yu3 ma5)

Of course, you can say 中文 (zhong1 wen2) instead of 汉语. That is not the big question here, but rather that you have to include 会, which underlines that you ask if the person you are speaking to, can speak Chinese or not. Only asking 你说汉语吗？ is not sufficient, it means "Do you use Chinese (in general)?, e.g. 你家里说中文吗？ Do you speak Chinese at home? (what is being asked is not the ability, but the fact if Chinese is spoken or not.)

Cantonese
你識唔識講中文啊? (Nei5/Lei5 sik1 m4 sik1 gong2 zung1 man4 aa3, I am using Jyutping here, but Yale is a similar transcription).

If you want to ask "Do you speak Chinese?" in Cantonese, you ask Chinese (中文), not Cantonese. I really don't understand why one would think Cantonese is not Chinese. So ask for 中文 not 廣東話. If you want to ask if someone specifically can speak Cantonese, then use 廣東話.

Notes:

(1) The Mandarin text uses simplified characters, as most Mandarin speakers use these, the Cantonese question uses the traditional ones, as most Cantonese speakers who are familiar with writing Cantonese are Hongkongers, who use traditional characters, but simplified characters are used by Cantonese native Mainland Chinese who can read and write Cantonese or at least have some experience with it.

(2) The Cantonese pronunciation is difficult to transcribe, there is a difference between Mainland Cantonese and Hong Kong Cantonese, e.g. 你 begins with 'l-' in "lazy speech", i.e. casual Hong Kong Cantonese, but 'n-' is a more formal, "proper" sound, especially used in the Mainland.

(3) The word "Chinese (language)" has many equivalents in (Mandarin) Chinese, all differ in some way.

汉语, the language of the Han
中文, the (written) language of the Chinese civilization
华语, Chinese as the language of Overseas Chinese, whether Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka, or any other dialect, as contrasted to the non-Chinese languages, like English, Malay or Thai, etc.
中国话, less used, means "the (spoken) language of China".
国语, ("national language"), i.e. Mandarin Chinese, this expression is mostly used outside the PRC
普通话 ("general language"), also Mandarin Chinese (or sometimes called Standard Chinese), this word is used in the PRC, which promotes Mandarin Chinese and discourages speaking dialects in public.
官话 ("official language"), Mandarin Chinese, this word has historic connotations, the Ming and Qing-dynasties, under which the Northern dialects gained the status of official language of the administration and the "Mandarins".

Ni hui shuo putong hua / Zhongwen ma?
Ni hui jiang putong hua /Zhongwen ma?


What is the difference between 狗 and 犬? 狗 (gǒu) and 犬 (quǎn) both mean "dog" and both seem relatively common, but is there any difference between them? When should I use one and when should I use the other?

Both of them refer to the same thing, "dog". “狗” is used much more in oral speaking, and “犬” is a formal word that you would see in books.

For words expressed in a classical (formal) way, you won't see "狗" but "犬".

  An idiom: 一人得道，鸡犬升天

When a man becomes an Immortal(God), even his pets like chickens and dogs go to heaven. An analogy that when someone becomes powerful, his associates would somehow become powerful too. We use it in a critical and negative way.

  犬子(literally: dog's son)

It's a word you will use to refer to your son in a humble way. In a few cases, you will hear this word nowadays. You would say "犬子今年20岁" (my son is 20 years old this year), to show your respect to the listener. (Of course, this expression is old-fashioned.)

  鹰犬 (literally: hawk and dog)

When you hunt in the field, you would take advantage of a hawk (falcon) or a dog (hound) to chase the game for you, so this word is an analogy to say "hired thugs", somone that implements your order [to commit crimes]. We use it in a negative way too.

  犬只 (=dog).

Usually, you will see it in the newspaper or the bulletins and  announcements from the government.

  小犬座 (Canis Minor, a small constellation) Here we don't use 小狗座

狗 is a vulgar (informal) word (in Chinese culture, a dog is not a good thing), so you will see it more in ordinary life, in oral speaking.

  狗腿子 (literally: dog's feet). With the same meaning as “鹰犬".
  狗崽子 (literally: a puppy). A curse word to refer to someone that you hate.
  you would ask your neighbour:"how old is your dog?" "你的狗多大了？" here, you wouldn't say "犬".

Note: There are few idioms with "狗" instead of "犬". For example, “狗尾续貂", but this word came from a popular oral proverb in its times, so this doesn't violate the viewpoint that “犬" is used formally.

When would you use "狗" or "犬"? Well, these words are fixed, so you have to memorize them. It's good to enlarge your vocabulary to avoid misuse. In most cases, you would use "狗".

狗：morden and casual
犬：traditional and formal.


What do these two seal stamps and these three characters on my Chinese painting mean? I got a seemingly Chinese painting from a thrift shop some time ago and would like to know what the seal stamps and characters on it mean. I have to admit that I don't have any prior knowledge of the Chinese language so I'm out of my element concerning the matter at hand. Amateurish research on my behalf proved to be unsuccessful and rather overwhelming so I'm turning to you for answers as my last choice option now.

Here a close-up of the two seal stamps. Sadly the left one is rather unrecognizable for the most part. With bare eyes you can make out more of the lines than visible here on the photo but I guess I would be content with someone just deciphering the right one. I could try to make a better photo of the left side seal stamp if someone sees the need for one, but I doubt it would be much better than that one. I guess these two are just normal name seals of the artist/collector, am I right?

Here you have a good look of the three characters I mentioned earlier. I guess they mean the title of the painting or they stand for some Chinese proverb or phrase. The meaning of these seal stamps and characters shouldn't be anything overly sophisticated though, considering the quality of the painting overall.

The painting itself depicts floral motives (cherry/plum blossom? and something else). I'm pretty confident that this is a Chinese painting because of the four-toed dragons as ornaments on the frame, the style in general and some other clues. It seems to be from the 1890s-1920s I guess, if this information is of any help in that context.

I would be very grateful if someone of you could shed light
upon this matter since it would be very interesting to know what this is all about, regardless of wether these stamps and characters mean something "special" or just something trivial. I already want to thank you for your time, effort and expertise in my case. I hope this proves to be as interesting for you as it is for me.

Many greetings from cnt.

The characters written in black ink is the first name of the painter (寿民 Shoumin). If you Google it, there is a painter named 边寿民(Bian Shoumin) in Chinese Qing Dynasty.

Here is a link to Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bian_Shoumin

You can also Google the word “边寿民” by image to see his other paintings.
If this painting is not counterfeit, It would worth around 500,000 in Chinese Yuan ($80,000).

The clearer seal is “志紋墨寶”. In my understanding, 志紋is also a person’s first name. 墨 means ink, 寶 means treasure. Therefore, “志紋墨寶” means 志紋’s treasured painting.

The characters are 壽民畫. 壽民 is the name of the painter, 畫 is a verb, to draw. And the stamp is the symbol of the painter.


Is there a Chinese WordNet? WordNet is a database of English words, which includes semantic relationships of words too.  It includes synonym and antonym-relationships, as well as "categories".  For example, it will tell me that a tabby is a cat and that a cat is an animal.

Is there anything comparable for Chinese, which is freely downloadable?

Anything that can be used online is already useful, but I'd prefer a database that I can download and analyse on my own computer.  I only need it for personal use (in case the license doesn't allow anything else).

For the Simplified Chinese script, there is Chinese Open Wordnet which you can search online.

This is part of Open Multilingual Wordnet, which also links to a smaller project called Chinese WordNet which was produced in Taiwan in 2010 and uses the Traditional Chinese script.  That one also has a 2012 version called Chinese WordNet 2, but the license of Chinese WordNet 2 is much more restrictive than that of the original Chinese WordNet or Chinese Open Wordnet.  Chinese WordNet 2 is non-commercial use only and no redistribution without permission, which means others have not integrated it with their online query systems and such.  You can still download it if you don't mind doing a bit of programming to read out the data (I suggest use the "CWN DataBase" link and the output.sqlite file; if you want to process it as text do echo .dump|sqlite3 output.sqlite > output.txt on GNU/Linux).

However if you can convert your input to the Simplified Chinese script then you might as well just use Chinese Open Wordnet.

I strongly recommend Zdic, where you can search a character via pinyin or via radical, and look up words or four-character-idioms with their synonyms and antonyms.

The website also provides additional resources, like a calligraphy viewer, a poems index, and a forum. It is a website not only as a dictionary, but also a windows for Chinese culture.


我很喜歡你呀 in a specific context It may be somewhat inappropriate, but I have to talk about this short story （在明孝陵乘涼 by 魏微）at a seminar:
Link to original
I have been taught "我喜歡你", when said between people of opposite sexes, usually means a romantic kind of fondness. In this story it seems the girl likes her brother in a not so innocent kind of way. Is this clear to the brother, when she uses

炯，我很喜歡你呀！ ;

or is there enough room to interpret it as innocent fondness among siblings?

"我很喜欢你" has the almost same usage with "I like you" in English, depending on the scenario, could be treated as "I love you" but again, it's rare.

In daily case, we(native Chinese) rarely use(or used?) this sentence because comparing to the western people, Chinese usually are regarded as a group people who are shy, barely express emotion orally.

But in this case, the author seems like depicture a little girl who has a crush on her brother. It's unethical but also natural considering their age. And it's far from incest since it's just an emotional activity.

关于繁体汉字“愛”，中间一个心字，上下是一个受字，意思是用自己的心，感受到对方的心。用法并不仅仅在爱情，也在亲情与更大的一种无私的爱，不求回报。  像上帝爱世人一样的意味。

后来，中华人民共和国成立后，发展了简体汉字“爱”，下面是一个“友”字，也意味着我们认为的爱情需要从友情开始，互相帮助，还有互相付出。代表了两性关系是从友情发展到爱情的路径。

因为这个时期，中国更强调男女要有共同的方向与目标，然后在一起工作，彼此帮助的基础上，逐渐感受到对方的心，进而产生“爱情”

这部小说的写作年代在于中华人民共和国时期，所以这个时候作者提到的“我喜欢你” 更多的是表达亲情，因为彼此之间没有共同的人生目标，仅仅是最开始的少女喜欢。


What does "kwukyel" mean in regards to Chinese language characters? My Pleco always tells me two little hashes on the top of 汉字 such as.

兑

are "kwukyel".

Can anyone point me to a reference that explains this term as it relates to Chinese language?

ps --  I already know the explanation about older Korean. That is not the question.

I'm asking about why this is in my Chinese language dictionaries (at least two).

[ -- this premise is not quite correct ----
 I don't believe these dictionaries are intended to be abstract Hanzi references.]

They are Chinese language dictionaries.

Is there any good reference that explains the mapping to "kwukyel"
for Chinese language is wrong?
If the term "kwukyel" is not meaningful for Chinese language, what definition should the marks be mapped to?

If the answer is "nothing", please provide some evidence/references so I can give credit to your answer. :-)

kwukyel or gugyeol is a Korean system to write Chinese characters phonetically that predates Hangul. As for 丷 itself, to quote from Wiktionary:

  This is a kwukyel note. Kwukyel was a system formerly used in Korea whereby correct interpretation of texts written in Classical Chinese was aided by small interspersed notes such as this one. The notes represent Korean morphemes but were only used within Chinese text.

(sorry to toot my own horn, but my prior effort to Edit another answer to give credit didn't work)

The question makes sense, but is not quite correct.
It says

  the dictionary is only contemporary Chinese, not for multiple uses for
  Hanzi.

But if you're looking at

Unihan

that very much is an abstract Hanzi reference.

It is not only for contemporary Chinese -  not even only for Chinese language.
Here is the Wikipedia on it:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_unification

If it is shown inside your electronic Mandarin or Cantonese or other Chinese dictionary,  you should expect some confusion.
It's a huge set of characters.
There may be genuine disagreement on a "correct" mapping, as well as mistakes or compromises in your electronic tool.
~
~
For a specific Component or Character mapping you are curious about, maybe that should be a new question.

As for the definition "kwukyel"...
as a learner of Chinese it means nothing to you.
That definition is for an old form of Korean writing - also considered in Unihan.  It was a mark just to guide the reader, without a "meaning" of it's own.

As a learner of Chinese, if you see "kwukyel" in Unihan you should think

if there is another definition in your tool, from a Chinese-only dictionary, you should use that because it was (hopefully) researched just for Chinese --  ignore the Unihan
if there is no other definition, just take it as "no useful meaning"

If you think your electronic dictionary could be improved, you might report to their support.


What's the difference between 懒惰 and 懒? What's the difference in the usage between 懒惰 and 懒? Both can be translated as "lazy".

懒 (lazy) is mainly an adjective (less often as a noun)

Example:

懒人 (lazy person)

人懒 (the person is lazy)

  懒惰 (lazy/ laziness) can be an adjective or a noun.

Example:

由于他懒惰，他的花园里充满了杂草 (Due to he being lazy, his garden is full of weeds )

由于他的懒惰，他的花园里充满了杂草 (Due to his laziness, his garden is full of weeds )

  The adjective 懒惰 preceding a noun usually requires the adjectival prefix '的'

Example: 懒惰的人 (lazy person)

  The adjective 懒惰 after a noun doesn't require adjectival prefix '的'

Example:人懒惰 (the person being lazy)

懒 (lazy) can also be a noun. It is used more often in spoken language compared with 懒惰(lazy).
(Adding to @Tang Ho's answer)


Why Is The Color Red Considered Lucky In Chinese Language and Culture? A constant feature in all things Chinese is the color (colour, for those yank-challanged among y'all) red.

As common knowledge goes, it is because red is considered to be lucky.

Why?

Here we have an old tale in China, saying that there is a beast called the "Nian" (年獸), and it will only attack people in spring. But it's afraid of all things red.

That's why Chinese people use many red things in the lunar new year (also in spring). It became a common color represent "lucky" in Chinese culture.

More information about Nian can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nian

Red represents fire.  Fire (離卦) in I-Ching (易經) also represents Light, Warmth, Sun, Smart, Talent, Beauty, etc.

Hence, Red is considered a good color (when used properly).


How would I say "I will get laughed at"? Was wondering what it would be . My best guess was the following but couldn't figure out the term

我會(____) 笑？

"我會被人笑" - "I will get laughed at "

"我會被人笑話" - "I will be joked at"

“我會被人取笑” - "I will be made fun of"

“我會被人耻笑” - "I will be ridiculed"

Edit:

Add '嘲笑' (to ridicule)(as TXV  suggested) and 譏笑 ( to sneer at; to mock; to ridicule)

“我會被人嘲笑” - "I will be ridiculed"

“我會被人譏笑” - "I will be ridiculed"


What is the difference in usage between the pairs 依然/仍然 and 依旧/仍旧? As in the ones with 然 and 旧

Very hard to tell from example sentences

他仍旧住在那老房子里。 He still lived in the old house.
他仍然住在那条街上。 He is still living on that street.

有些问题仍旧没有解决。 Some problems remain to be solved.
我仍然相信他是无辜的。 I still believe he's innocent.

etc...

Is it that one is relative to a shorter time and one is relative to a longer time?

仍旧 means 'still (as always/ same as the past)'
依旧/仍旧 is more specific term for 'still'. It express something 'stay the same despite passing of time '

Example 1 : 五十年过去了, 他仍旧住在那条街上 (fifty years is a long time)
Example 2 : 三年过去了, 我仍旧相信他是无辜的 (three years have passed, nothing changed, I still believe he is innocent)

仍然 means 'still (despite of)'
依然/仍然 is more general term for 'still'. It express something 'stay the same despite any opposing force or reason'

Example 3 : 五十年过去了, 他仍然住在那条街上 (despite the fact that many things would had been changed in 50 years)
Example 4 : 尽管有这么多证据,我仍然相信他是无辜的 (despite the fact that all the evidences are against him, I still believe he is innocent)

*仍旧/依旧 is actually a shortened form of 依然如旧 / 仍然如旧(still like always/ still like before/ still like in the past)

Although they can be used interchangeably sometimes, they are not synonyms.

Joining @Levin, I deem them identical (仍然=仍旧). Both are old-fashioned. A more colloquial term is 還是 (lit. remain to be).


没有人不喜欢自己的。 what does 的 imply here? I understand the meaning of this sentence. Nobody doesn't like him/herself. My question is, why is there a 的 at the end? It is not a past tense sentence. And also there isn't any detail so that the 是。。的 structure be used. Then why? :-/
Does anyone of you more such examples where 的 is used like this? Please share if you do. Thank you. :)

@Stan's reference to NS.X's answer gives a good explanation. 是...的 construction doesn't necessarily imply past action. It's just for emphesis. It's easy to give some examples for this usage.

  I will never buy iPhone. I only use Android phone. 我是绝对不会买 iPhone 的。我只用 Android 手机。

NS.X's answer said that the 是 … 的 construction emphasises time, manner or place. In fact, it can also be used to emphasise the action(verb) itself. In 我是绝对不会买 iPhone 的, 的 emphesizes 不会买(won't buy). 是 can be left out here. (You can also say that the 的 emphesizes the whole sentence.)

With regard to没有人不喜欢自己的, the 的 is used here to emphasize on 不喜欢(doesn't like). Its full version is 没有人是不喜欢自己的. 是 is left out here.

Look at the fourth meaning item of 的 from Contemporary Chinese Dictionary, 6th Edition.

Figure 1. Contemporary Chinese Dictionary, 6th Edition, page 272

④用在陈述句的末尾，表示肯定的语气：这件事儿我知道~。
It can be translated as "Used at the end of a declarative sentence, indicating an affirmative tone: I do know this thing."

的 is a 語氣詞 (can't find an English translation for it, literally means "tone word"). This is somehow like exclamation words such as "Oh", but they serve a slightly different function. You should view them as something like punctuations instead.

In English, you can easily express your tone with an increase or decrease in loudness, length/speed or pitch to express that it is a question or a statement; a sure statement, a quoted statement or a doubtful statement; a pleading tone, or a commanding tone; whether you feel that the quantity in the sentence is excessive, neutral or too few. However, Chinese has a fixed pitch, so it is especially necessary to have words at the end of a sentence.

It feels really very unnatural if these words are absent. Without these words, the sentence may sound cold, emotionless, or even unnatural or interrupted. For example, the word "啦" is used so frequently in Cantonese (and probably in Putonghua) to express that the sentence is strongly subjective/emotional/pleading, that some of my friends even mix it (using the pronunciation "la") into our WhatsApp messages in English. For example, "請你不要。" (Please don't.), as you can see in the English translation, sounds very cold and authoritative (even with "Please"). What if we are pleading to our friends (in a calm way, not an exclaiming way)? "請你不要啦。" carries a much more persuading tone (especially if we increase the length of 啦, but not necessarily).

Other examples of these words include (question) 嗎, 呢, (exclamation) 呀, 啊, (statement) 而已, 的, 啦, 吧, (and nil too), etc. (In Cantonese there are many more of these words, but I don't think these also exist in Putonghua)

的, in this example, expresses the objectiveness, absoluteness of the statement "Nobody doesn't like himself". It shows that the sentence is a reasonable, inarguable and doubtless.

To understand this sentence, these syntactic expletives (虛詞) can be ignored, but you may totally misunderstand the tone of the speaker.

Note that if the sentence is changed into "沒有人不喜歡自己的吧", the tone implies presumption and uncertainty, seeking for agreement. Why is there another after 的? It is because 的 isn't very strongly related to 語氣詞, but more related to the structure of a statement, while 吧 is a very expressive word.

===

I am a native Chinese (Cantonese) speaker, so I understand the language pattern to nature, that it sometimes gets very difficult to explain how some language patterns work. IMO, Chinese doesn't have a very strict language pattern compared to English. Reading more Chinese books is the only way to develop the sense of understanding these patterns.


Word that sounds like dumpou or trumpou I teach English online to children in China. One of my students has autism and cannot answer many questions. When I ask him what his name is, he always says "My name is Drumpou (or Trumpou)," which is not his name. He is trying to communicate something but I don't know what it is.

Trump sounds like Trump. Many Chinese speakers whose English is not so hot will say 'ah' or 'oh' after English words, like: goodah, coldah.

This is the character for 啊 a, this is 哦 o. They are often added at the end of sentences for reasons of prosody.

You can say: 对 dui, meaning 'correct', but mostly you will hear 对阿 dui a 'correct'

Maybe he is making a (political) joke:
What's your name?
Trumpoh!

Maybe it is his 乳名. Parents call their child using such 'nickname'. Kids aren't really aware that, whether to give their real-name or nickname to other to name him/her, sometimes.

It is just a guess. You may better consult his parent to reveal.


Is 多早晚 wrong or right In that site it says 多早晚 means "When". I asked a friend from Singapore, she told me that no one uses that, and it's a mistake. I would like to know if you use it, and in which context.

https://chinese.yabla.com/chinese-english-pinyin-dictionary.php?define=zao+wan

Looks like classical Chinese.
zdic

◎ 多早晚 duōzǎowǎn
[when] 多咱,什么时候(“多咱”来于“多早晚”)

多早晚
什麼時候。紅樓夢．第十四回：「我且問你，你們這夜書多早晚纔念呢？」或作「多早」、「多咱」、「多咱晚」、「多偺」、「多喒」。
甚晚、很晚。

百度百科

中文名 多早晚
外文名 Much sooner or later
性质 词语
来源 红楼梦
多早晚 duōzǎowǎn [when] 多咱，什么时候(“多咱”来于“多早晚”)
《红楼梦》第六四回：“黛玉道：‘可是你没的说了！好好的，我多早晚又伤心了？’”
茅盾《霜叶红似二月花》：“我早就想过，多早晚，我们村子里一人一股香，大家上县里去，一步一拜，打伙儿跪在王伯申大门前，求他高抬贵手。”

As the encyclopedia entry mentions 多咱 comes from 多早晚 and is in common usage in Northern China. You might be hard pressed to find usage of 多早晚 outside of 红楼梦 though.

我来自中国广州，在中国大陆没有人说这个词，只听过早晚，没有说多早晚的


What does 生命诚可贵 爱情价更高 若为自由故 二者皆可抛 mean? 生命诚可贵 爱情价更高 若为自由故 二者皆可抛

I think it means "life is expensive, but love is even more so.  However, both are not as good as freedom."

It's a little different from yours at the latter half of the sentence:

  Life is dear, love is dearer. Both can be given up for freedom.

Reference:

This is the poem written in 1847 by the Hungarian poet Sándor Petőfi. Here is the original:

  Szabadság, szerelem!
  E kettő kell nekem.
  Szerelmemért föláldozom
  Az életet, Szabadságért föláldozom Szerelmemet.

Here's the translation by 殷夫 in 1929, which adopted Chinese classic five-character poem style, but not totally faithful to the original text:

  生命诚可贵，
  爱情价更高。
  若为自由故，
  二者皆可抛。

Another translation by 孙用 in 1957:

  自由，爱情！
  我要的就是这两样。
  为了爱情，
  我牺牲我的生命；
  为了自由，
  我又将爱情牺牲。

Another translation by 兴万生 in 1991:

  自由与爱情！
  我都为之倾心。
  为了爱情，
  我宁愿牺牲生命，
  为了自由，
  我宁愿牺牲爱情。

In English:

  Liberty and love
  These two I must have
  For love, I will sacrifice my life
  For liberty, I will sacrifice my love

Is that really an old Chinese saying?

生命诚可贵 爱情价更高 若为自由故 二者皆可抛。

Life is precious, love's worth more, but for freedom both would I abandon.

Sounds like someone who wants to be a very lonely old man! Although, maybe its not from someone who wants a divorce, but a soldier before the battle.


How can I pronounce 绿 (lü4 - green)? My wife gave up trying to correct me on how to pronounce green.

I find it very hard to get a distinct sound from the word for 绿 (lü4 - green), Lu, and, Liu (as in Liu Bei). Obviously, Lu is exactly how it reads in English, but the other two are hard to get right with the tongue.

How can I pronounce this sound?

The sound represented by the ü sound in Chinese is the same as the German ü; this sound is a close front rounded vowel, the IPA is [y]; you can hear a sample in the link.

As you see in the table below in that wikipedia article, which lists the languages that possess this sound, we see both Mandarin (which uses green as the example) and German. So the sound is the same.

The best way to teach this is:

Pronounce an "ee" sound, in English, like for "feel".
Keep pronouncing the sound, but start rounding your lips as if you had to pronounce a "oo" sound, which is [u], a close back rounded vowel.
The final sound you should get is the one of a close front rounded vowel, also written as [y].

Basically, you have the same lips position for U and Ü, but a different tongue position, the one for the [i] sound.

Look at the image below. The tongue position is different in [i] (upper-left) and [u] (upper-right).

 (Source)

Try to prounce re [ri:] as in reboot, the result would be approximate lü1, then just make it lü4.

Drop a comment if anyone think this is a bad idea so we can improve.


Is "不會" a correct response to "謝謝"？ I live in Taiwan.There are occasions where I need to thank people, and sometimes they use "不會" to reply my "謝謝". Is this correct and what does "不會" in this occasion mean?

It is better to use "不用谢" or "不用",instead of "不会"。
"不用" is short for "不用谢",which means you don't need to thanks me.
"不会" means I can't do some thing.


Can 弗 Mean Dollar In Chinese? 弗 means dollar (as in USD, $) in both Korean and Japanese.
Korean

불
[弗] a dollar

Japnese

ドル
noun

dollar (from Dutch, orig. an abbr. of ドルラル; also written as 弗) (see also: ドルラル)

Grand Ricci says that 弗 fú is:

6 (Écon. – Fin.) Car. empl. pr le symbole $ : dollar.

the pronunciation of the dollar symbol in Chinese.
I haven't seen any other acknowledgement of 弗 fú having anything to do with US Dollars in any other dictionaries.

Can 弗 Mean Dollar In Chinese?

From Wiktionary, the possible meanings of 弗 are:

as negation (as in, 不 and 否 for "no")
gust of wind
writing brush

There is no mention if it can mean dollar.

On the other hand, in Japanese, the possible meanings are:

fluorine
the dollar sign ($)

The reason of the dollar sign is because of the similarity of the sign itself (弗 vs $).

  Repurposed for its visual similarity to the dollar symbol $. This reading is ultimately a borrowing from Dutch dollar.

Someone will use 刀 for dollar because of the pronunciation, but 弗 is not used as $.


Why are there different pronunciations of 复杂？ During a Chinese class, a student pronounced 复杂 as fu3za2, instead of the official pronunciation fu4za2. The Chinese teacher corrected the student but then mentioned many native speakers pronounce it as fu3za2 as well, particularly in the south or something like that.
Have any of you heard this different pronunciation and perhaps know the reasons behind why such a tonal difference exists? Is it, like the teacher said, just simply a case of south Chinese pronunciation? Or is it more complex than that?
多谢！

The reason is simply because it's 顺嘴(for better fluency/flow better).
It could be that we leverage it from old generations.  And then we have been corrected in school.
In practice, we know the correct pronunciation for it, but sometimes most of people still say fu3za2 occasionally because they already get used to it.
I don't think this only applies to the southern areas.  I also find it's been said by people from the north.

You should follow your teacher's pronunciation: fu4 za2, this is the Standard Mandarin.
The other pronunciation is not correct.


How to describe differences between Cantonese and Mandarin? When I tell people I speak Cantonese I'm often asked, "What's the difference between that and Mandarin?".  This inevitably leads to a very poor explanation that includes references to the differences between Portugese and Spanish (which I feel is a poor analogy) and an explanation that Cantonese is a spoken dialect only, and "written Chinese is the same but Cantonese speakers pronounce the characters differently, but they don't even use the same words when speaking", and really I find it a difficult thing to explain.  How would you explain the differences between the two?

The analogy to Portuguese and Spanish is a good one. Just don't forget that the writing system is a bit like Latin. In the middle ages nobody spoke Latin but many people could read and write it. Written Chinese was the equivalent to written Latin. Now, people write in Modern Standard Mandarin, which is the same as the spoken language taught in the schools. It's like when they started teaching the Spanish children to write in Spanish instead of Latin.

Both dialects have similarities but they pronounce most words totally differently. In some cases, Cantonese uses different words for the same meanings. For example, (I'm told that) "we" is not "我们" but rather something like "我地". Cantonese speakers understand "我们" and if reading it aloud could chose to pronounce it as "我们", but "我地" is how normal speakers would say "we". This type of difference is fairly common.

Here is an example of an ad that only makes sense in Cantonese:

  去 緊 旅行，仲可以日日update，至勁係你.

Which would probably be written in Mandarin thus:

  旅行當中，還可以 每一天update，你最了不起.

Essentially, if you are trying to explain the differences to someone who is not really interested in it but is just asking to be polite, you could sum it up as "two different languages that use the same writing system". Different pronunciations, different vocabulary choices, different grammar, and even some different characters.

Sounds to me more like how Sicilian differs from Roman--different versions of the Italian language; or how people speak English in (for instance) McIntyre, Georgia vs the East End of London.


The exact meaning of 就 as a linking word I know 就 is a linking word in these sentences, but what's the exact meaning? I don't really know if it's rather "and" or "then", "and later", "immediately", "right away", "and right after that", "at once"... Help, please!

她又怕他不高兴，就哄他说

她穿上一件花裙子就上路了

大大小小的野兽吓得撒腿就跑

俩人商量了一阵， 就各自回家了

大家觉得他要做的工作太多，就把他那根扁担藏了起来

小马水也顾不上喝就跑开了

I've got a few additional questions too...

Sometimes a comma is put, sometimes isn't. Does the meaning depend on the comma?
If it doesn't, then which version is correct - with or without a comma?

The closest rendition of 就 into English is "and then" or "and straight away"; "then" can denote a temporal or a logical connection.
就 in sentences 1–4 can be read in the temporal sense, in sentences 1 and 5 in the logical sense. Sentence 6 is a little peculiar because the most natural translation would be "The pony could not even afford to take a sip of water before running way," but if you squint a bit, you could say that 就 here simply means one action is immediately followed by the other in time.
Here are several more examples of 就 as a logical connective:

要是我有錢就好了 "if only I were rich" (literally: if I have money, then it is good)
聽說她幸福快樂，我就安心了 "I am glad she is living happily ever after" (literally: I heard she lives happily, I am therefore relieved)
你睡一覺就舒服點了 "you will feel better after a night's sleep" (literally: you have one nap, then it will be a bit more comfortable); a temporal reading is also possible

The comma is optional in most cases; it is used for rhythm purposes when the second clause is too long. There are, however, are a few set phrases that do not use a comma, 撒腿就跑, 倒頭就睡, 見好就收, 一管就死, 一放就亂 being some of them. I am not sure if 束手就擒 falls under this category because 就 here could also mean "to reach (the state of being caught)."
The phrase "and later" would be closer to 然後, which has a stronger temporal sense.

就 has many meanings，it can be used as
Conj，verb ，prep，adv
Conj ：
就算你有钱，也不能乱花。
It means that even though you're rich ，you can't waste money
Verb：
it means "close to" "approach"
就着灯看书 ＝靠近灯光看书
"devote oneself to" "go in for"
就业＝take up an occupation
就任＝take up one's post
Prep:
就目前来说，病人已经脱离危险了。
It means that ，by looking at the current situation
Adv:
我就要喝啤酒，it means i am eager to have a drink。
我就要吃那块糖，it means i am eager to have that suger


What is the difference between 哈哈, 呵呵, 嘻嘻, and 嘿嘿? I always see 哈哈, 呵呵, 嘻嘻, and 嘿嘿 in WeChat, QQ, etc, but I don't really understand the subtle differences between them and when to use them appropriately, especially 呵呵. I use 呵呵 myself now, but I'm not sure I'm using it correctly.

check the table. This picture says everything.

哈哈，is used when we are very happy.呵呵，is used when we feel embarrassed or don't want to talk anymore. 嘻嘻，when you
smile archly. 嘿嘿， when you feel shy. 哇哈哈哈，when you feel very happy.


Are there word games in Chinese? Do Chinese characters make it a lot harder to create or play word games in Chinese than it is in English? I have seen a few Chinese crosswords, but it seems like they aren't as densely cross-linked as English ones usually are. (In the few that I've seen, Chinese ones seem to have more black squares.) I suspect this difficulty is why logic puzzles like Sudoku and Masyu that use symbols instead of words are popular in Japan.

I love the English word games you find in books like David Parlett's Penguin Book of Word Games, or on his web site. Do any similar resources exist for Chinese word games?

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

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

Download this game: https://itunes.apple.com/cn/app/cheng-yu-lian-lian-kan-peng/id623700913?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

Its a Mandarin version of Word Trivia! Its fun and exciting, very challenging and its free!


What's the difference between 蝦 and 鰕? I found there are two characters for "xia1" (ghra as in Middle Chinese), 蝦 and 鰕.

Could someone explain what the difference is?

You should use 蝦. As can be seen in zdic.net 鰕 used to mean shrimp, but is not used anymore in this meaning. In Japan it however is still a common character.

Using Google:

蝦 site:tw has about 7,060,000 results
鰕 site:tw has about 29,400 results

The latter is used in some exotic fish names.

According to modern science, shrimp is not a kind of fish, and it is not even Vertebrate，so you shall use 蝦 rather than 鰕. Because 虫 usually used to build glyphs related to worm-like animals, and 魚 used for fishes.

Exceptions:

鯨 (whale) is not fish, but ancient people simply don't know!
蛇 (snake) is vetebrate, but people just think it is a huge earthworm!


What does 土 mean in this sentence 这个名字有点土? I heard this mentioned about someones name recently. Can someone explain the meaning and any connotations of "土" in the sentence:

这个名字有点土

土 has serveral meanings, one of which is 不合潮流 (out of the swim, out of fashion, out of step, old-fashioned, etc.).

So in your example, 土 means old-fashioned.

I guess it is because the core meaning of 土 is earth or dirt, which we can't say is fancy.

In this sentence, the 土（tu） is like mundane, and it is a derogatory term/


Why isn't 到 (dào) used in 某天我去北京? Earlier while chatting, I wrote a sentence and a native speaker told me it was correct. The sentence was:

  某天我去北京。= Someday I'll go to Beijing.
  (mǒu tiān wǒ qù Běi jīng)

I noticed that no prepositions are used here. It's probably because I'm still a beginner, but then I wondered: if it's true that 到 can mean "to (a place)", why isn't it used in that sentence? Are there some rules I'm not aware of or something I'm missing?

Also: when should we use 到? What are the situations/contexts that need it?

First, grammars of Chinese and English are totally different, you don't need the preposition like in English.
Second, in my opinion, 去 indicates that you start the action of "going to a place",and "到" indicates that you have finished that action, so you "reach a place " or "arrive at a place".
An example:

本周二我会坐火车去北京，周三到。
I will  go to Beijing by train this Tuesday and I will arrive on Wednesday.

某天我去北京 =  某天我将去北京
我将在未来某个目前还没有确定的时间，去北京。


是个[adj + noun] vs 是[adj + noun] A flashcard asked me to translate "Beijing is a big place". I proposed "北京是大地方“ and the answer was "北京是个大地方" (namely I omitted the 个).

1) Is my answer grammatically correct? I thought that, unlike English, Chinese does not require you to say articles i.e. "a/an [noun]".

2) If my answer is right, what's the difference between adding and omitting a 个?

So far my understanding of measure words like 个 is that the usage is to say [number][measure word][noun], or to say the type of object "this" is (i.e. 这个， 这里， etc).

For apps like Duolingo, the correct answer is the best translation, not necessary any correct equivalent translation.  In this case, the authors of the app have decided that Beijing is a big place is most closely translated to 北京是个大地方.  It's not bad, Beijing [北京] is [是] a [个] big [大] place [地方], but such clean and direct translations are uncommon.

The long structure is:

  [noun] 是一个 [adjective] 的 [noun]

Where we have:

  北京是一个大的地方
  Běijīng shì yīgè dà de dìfāng

In this structure, we can replace the nouns and adjectives at will:

  她是一个美丽的女人
  那是一辆旧的汽车

(Note we need to change the measure word accordingly.)

However, 北京是一个大的地方 (while grammatical) is rather long.  Thus we...

Drop the 一个 (see Connecting nouns with "shi").  We can also replace 一个 with just 个 (see Measure word "ge"; Omitting the Number).

So we can say either of:

  [noun] 是 [adjective] 的 [noun]
  [noun] 是个 [adjective] 的 [noun]

  北京是大的地方
  北京是个大的地方

In the case of 大的地方 we can drop the 的 (which we cannot do in general).  In general, precisely when we can and cannot drop the 的 is tricky.  As I understand, it is okay to drop the 的 in 大的[noun] (for one and two-hanzi nouns) and in most cases of single-hanzi adjectives (as in this case: 大).  （There's likely exceptions to this.)  Thus all of these are okay too:

  北京是大地方
  北京是个大地方
  北京是一个大地方

As dan notes in the comments, in the case of 大地方 it's natural to think of this as a noun in its own right.  In this case we're using the [noun] 是一个 [noun] construct with 大地方 as the second noun.  This is not generally true; something like 大机场 (big airport) would probably be interpreted simply as a short form of 大的机场.

(Side note: The most common case of dropping the 的 is to express closeness, e.g., 我妹妹, see Expressing close possession without "de", but it's not the only possibility.)

In total, that's six different grammatical ways of saying the same thing.  So the app has chosen the one they consider most faithful to the English.

In response to What's the difference between adding and omitting a 个?  If you include a solitary 个, it implies there's only one (of whatever your talking about).  This is also mentioned in Measure word "ge"; Omitting the Number.  However, there's obviously only one Beijing (so the distinction doesn't arise here).  A case where it's relevant is 我们是好朋友 ("we are good friends"): you can't add a solitary 个 here because there's two people (not one), but you can say 我们是两个好朋友.

Finally, I feel it's more precise to say 城市 (chéng shì) = "city" instead of 地方 = "place".  I also feel that 大 is an inadequate adjective to describe the "bigness" of Beijing.  Thus I would say:

  北京是个非常大的城市
  Běijīng shìgè fēicháng dà de chéngshì

Quote:- I feel it's more precise to say 城市 (chéng shì) = "city" instead of 地方 = "place"

So when do you use which and when?

It's the same reason in English when you say, "London is a  big city" and "London is a big place"

The former when you just want to talk about the general "bigness" of London without any specific implications arising from its size.

Whereas the latter would be when its size poses some physical implications, like, when someone ask you to find a Mr. XYZ in London, you might more likely say, "what, London is a big place"