What does bianniu 变牛 mean? I have seen this expression in a few texts, including news articles, but it does not seem to be commonly used.

Here are a few examples of context:

"...第二舰队变牛了以后调到了第二舰队当先任参谋..."

"高考报志愿：盘点改名后变牛的10所大学"

"为什么很多人说读《毛泽东选集》就变牛了"

"...第二舰队变牛了以后调到了第二舰队当先任参谋..."

To me this sentence seems a little bit strange. I guess there is a name of the person before this sentence.

If so, then the sentence means that: After the second fleet becomes stronger, someone was transferred and become the chief of staff there.

  "改名后变牛的10所大学"

Translation: 10 College became elite school after changing their names.

  "为什么很多人说读《毛泽东选集》就变牛了"

Translation: Why many people say that you will become smarter/sharper after reading "Selected Works of Mao Zedong"?

So you can see that in these sentences, “变牛” means becomes stronger. The exact meaning might change according to the specific situation.

Usually, we use the word to express that one wants to become more capable


What does 融 in 融资 mean? 融 means melting, right?

So 融资 means melting capital? Some Chinese friends told me that it was the ancient practice where gold ingots from different sources are melted to become the property of somebody for public good. Is that true or is there any other justification for that?

It is true that, generally speaking, 融 means to melt, but has other meanings too, especially in the economic context.

In this case, as 賈可 Jacky wrote, the character 融 can be translated as circulation or to circulate. In the online Chinese Dictionary zdic this character is defined as follows:

  ● 融
  róng  ㄖㄨㄥˊ

   固体受热变软或化为流体：～化。～解。消～。
   调合，和谐：～合。～洽。～汇贯通。其乐～～。
   流通：～泄（飘动，浮动）。金～（货币的流通，即储蓄，信贷、汇兑、股票和证券交易等经济活动的总称）。
   长远、永久：～裔（形容声调悠长）。

The meaning we are interested in is #3, which says:

  [...]3. Circulation [流通]: like in the words fluctuation [融泄] (floating, drifting) and finance [金融] (circulation of money, namely savings, credit, remittances, buying and selling of stocks, and other economic activities of this kind)[...]

So, this character 融 has to do with circulation (流通) of capital (资本), and that's why the meaning of 融资 is in fact financing or funding.

This particular meaning of 融 can also be found in the 《汉语大字典》 and in the 《辞源》. Both dictionaries explain this character by saying that its meaning is basically 流通 (to circulate).

I couldn't find any reference to the ancient tradition your friend mentioned. Anyway, it seems to me that the word 融资 is quite a modern coinage.

References:

融资 entry in Wiktionary (Traditional characters)
融 entry in Wiktionary
融 entry in zdic

融资：to find money.

“融” 听起来比 “要” beg 高大上。


Are there any online etymological dictionaries of Mandarin (not for characters but for spoken words) tl;dr Are you aware of any dictionaries that explain word etymologies (not merely character etymologies)?  Some links/references would be useful.

This is actually a collection of related questions, but I thought it would be good to keep them together.

Are there any online etymological dictionaries of Chinese?  All such dictionaries I can find deal with character etymologies, which is not at all the same thing as the etymologies of the real spoken language (which can do just fine without a writing system at all, I'm sure that not more than a 100 years ago literacy rate in China was far from great).

Generally, how well do character etyomologies reflect the true etyomologies of words?

Let me give a motivating example, which made me curious about it.  Yak in Mandarin is 牦牛 / 氂牛 / máoniú, i.e. when spoken sounds just like "hairy cow" 毛牛, a very fitting description.  If it weren't for the characters, one would be tempted to suspect this is not an accident.  Yet if we look up the character (not word!) online, we only get "signific cluster, an ox 牜牛 that requires couxing 攵攴 from a branch 未", which suggests otherwise.

To avoid an all too common misunderstanding, I'd like to point out again that although a writing system can leave a deep mark on the oral language, a language can exist just fine without it.  I am sure that a 100 years ago the literacy rate in China was far below great, yet people could use the language just fine.  So again, when I say Chinese in this question, I mean the spoken Chinese language (take whichever variety you prefer), not the character based writing system (I have the impression that often answers about Chinese consider written Chinese first).

The ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese is searchable online here:

http://edoc.uchicago.edu/edoc2013/digitaledoc_index.php

Go to 'EDOC: Linear Output', select 'All' on the right-hand side (under 'ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese'), type in your characters, and click 'Display Phonetics'.  For more complicated searches, go to 'EDOC: Search'.

Also, to give a simple example to help clarify what the OP is referring to as "character etymologies" vs. "word etymologies", the ABC dictionary gives the following for 蜜 (mì):

  ‘Honey’ [Chuci]. || [T] MTang mir < mir, ONW miit — [D] PMin *mit || [E]
  Thought to be borrowed from IE-Tocharian B mit ‘honey’ < PTokharian *mjət
  (Behr Oriens 1999 / 2000: 36).

The above is a word etymology.  It is a loanword, of Indo-European origin, and is in fact related to English "mead", Lithuanian "medus", Greek "μέθη", Russian "мёд", and Farsi "می", for example.

A character etymology would decompose this character into 虫 (insect radical) and 宓 (phonetic), which is in turn decomposed into 宀 (roof radical) and 必 (phonetic). Both 虫 and 宀 can be traced back to the oracle bone script, while 必 can be traced back to the bronzeware script. (Source: hanziyuan.net)

The character and word etymologies are quite distinct - while all of the components of the character are of Chinese origin, the word itself is Indo-European.

If we take away the characters, which means we are going a long way back, prior to written records, which in terms of world history is a long time ago because Chinese writing is considerably early history (think 甲骨文). We are left with the spoken language.

In terms of a spoken language Chinese is different because it doesn't have an alphabet per se, so unlinke English where you have the opportunity to have an endless number of words Chinese uses a finite number of words. For English it could be possible to trace a word like Trampoline back through its roots where you get to a certain point where it first began arising. But with Chinese if you take a word like máo you are in trouble because it didn't stem from any other word or in any other culture or from any other root of a word or from any part of another word, máo is just máo.

To go back to your question:

  Generally, how well do character etyomologies reflect the true etymologies of words?

Looking at the example provided "an ox 牜牛 that requires couxing 攵攴 from a branch 未" at some point someone or some group decided to choose that character to apply to that "word" so understand that the character has a meaning which is what you provided above, but the word already had a meaning and a context, so you can't use the meaning of the character as a basis for the etymology or origin of the usage of the word.

This doesn't confirm or contradict that 牦牛 comes from 毛牛 as you have insinuated. The etymology of the character is useless in telling that. If you strip away the characters a 牦牛 is still a 牦牛 and will have been called such for thousands of years even if some monk decides to use a more complicated character or decides a new character is required because there may have been some other context.

Was máo chosen as the spoken word for 氂 because it was hairy (毛 máo)? You can't use the characters to answer that because both máo (氂) and máo (毛) existed prior to either character. You need to go back to a time when words first started arising and the language was born and that information is lost to the ages.

If you want to go into the above further I'm afraid that's off topic as per the FAQ for the site as the scope is too large and you would require a book to cover all of the necessary information. I hope the above is sufficient in answering why such a tool does not exist.


Difference between 肯定 and 确定 Does anyone know the difference (if there is a difference) between 肯定 and 确定？

I seem to have trouble in knowing when to use each of them in certain contexts.

肯定 certain; sure; affirm;  (the outcome is virtually a fact)
确定 determine; confirm; finalize (the outcome is already a fact)

You can say, "Team China certainly (肯定) will lose to team Germany in the World Cup." The outcome has not been known yet.

You can say, "Team China beat team Japan and is confirmed (确定) to advance to the second round." The outcome is known.

But you cannot say, "Team China confirmed (确定) will lose to team Germany in the World Cup." They haven't played yet.

确定 (to finalize): finalize the team roster
肯定 (to affirm): affirm his earlier statement

肯定表示认同，确定则是表示认准后决定的.
肯定和确定分别是：
判断的决定性
和
无法更改的事实
肯定代表是个人观点：就是自己主观上认为的事实
确定指的是有证据可以表明的事实.
you say '我肯定这个人就是凶手'表示个人主观上所认为是事实，自身对这个观点很肯定。
you say '我确定这个人就是凶手'指拥有证据或已经发生（出现）的一个事实.
以上是我个人的理解.


How to write " moving on" in traditional Chinese? I'm getting a tattoo in Chinese and I have everything already I'm just missing the "moving on" part. How should I translate it?

"Moving on" can translate some Chinese idioms, such as 堅持不懈,一往無前,堅持到底,奮勇向前, these are traditional Chinese. These idioms mean " always move forward bravely" 勇敢地一直向前进.

Hope this answer can help you.

向着胜利勇敢前进。An inspireing phrase from the song of the Youth Pioneer Group, "Marching bravely towards victory."


Loanwords with Chinese Equivalents How many loanwords in Chinese have Chinese equivalents?

Example:
三文鱼 is a loanword, borrowed from English, meaning salmon, but Chinese also has the word 鲑鱼 meaning salmon.

Are there a lot of these kinds of word-sets?

I'm not sure where you could get an accurate count for how many there are. Considering that loanwords have been coming into Chinese for thousands of years, it definitely won't be a trivial task.

There is certainly quite a few, however, not all of which is current/widespread/universal. I'll list some here, and edit more in if I think of any later:

Angel: 安琪兒 = 天使
Bacon: 培根 = 煙肉
Blog: 博客 / 部落格 = 網誌
Boycott: 杯葛 = 抵制
Bus: 巴士 = 公共汽車
Bye-Bye: 掰掰 = 再見
Camera: 開麥拉 / 卡麥拉 = 照相機
Cheese: 芝士 / 起司 / 起士 = 奶酪 / 乳酪
Cream: 克林姆 = 奶油
Copy: 拷貝 = 複製
Daddy: 爹地 = 爸爸
E-mail: 伊媚兒 / 依妹兒 = 電子郵件
Engine: 引擎 = 發動機 / 動力機 / 機
Fillet: 菲力 = 柳
Gas: 瓦斯 = 天然氣
(House) Party: 轟趴 = 聚會
Index: 引得 = 索引 / 檢目 / 總檢
Laser: 雷射 = 激光
Logic: 邏輯 = 理則
Mommy: 媽咪 = 媽媽
Motel: 摩鐵 = 汽車旅館
Mini: 迷你 = 小
Party: 派對 = 舞會 / 聚會 / 聯歡會
Polish: 泡立水 = 蟲膠清漆 / 酒精清漆
Rifle: 來福槍 = 步槍
Romantic: 羅曼蒂克 = 浪漫
Sardine: 沙丁魚 = 鰛 / 鰯
Sauce: 沙司 = 醬
Sauna: 桑拿 = 蒸氣浴
Scooter: 速可達 = 輕機車
Shampoo: 香波 = 洗髮精
Shopping: 血拼 = 逛街購物
Show: 秀 = 節目
Tank: 坦克 = 戰車
Taxi:  的士 = 計程車 / 出租車
Tobacco: 淡巴菰 = 菸草
Typhoon: 颱風 = 颶風
Quduq: 胡同 / 衚衕 = 小巷
おばさん: 歐巴桑 = 老太婆
おじさん: 歐吉桑 = 老頭子
パチンコ: 柏青哥 / 扒金宫 = 彈珠機
たたみ: 塌塌米 = 疊蓆

Again, I couldn't comment due to not enough reputation so I'm posting an answer here.

Romantic: 羅曼蒂克 = 浪漫
is incorrect. they are both translated by sound.
It is said a Japanese (actually a very famous one), Shouseki Natsume (夏目漱石), created the Sino-Japanese word 浪漫(ロマン) from the first moras of romantic（ロマンチック）. While who did it is still debated, it is certain this is a loan word that is translated by its sound then clipped. In Japanese, ロマン is pronounced almost identical to Chinese 罗曼.

I must also comment: This question is asking for an endless list. What's the point? Can I create a question that ask for every Chinese characters ever existed?


Books/websites for learning Chinese business letters Does anyone know/recommend books/websites for learning to write business letters in Chinese?

I think you can google '應用文'.
Because '應用文' is a method of writing a letters of Chinese.

Search 商务写作、商务邮件、商务信函(a formal way to say letter) 、写信的格式 on book.douban.com to find highly rated books in Chinese. Buy them via 京东网、当当网 (=Amazon in China)。(Highly likely that what you find will be books on how to write English business emails, another proof that Chinese companies don't have a strong email culture)  Or just see some web posts on this. Search releted keywords on zhihu.com（=Quora）
To my knowledge, Chinese companies don't have a E-mail culture. Middle and small firms usually use Wechat Group、QQ Group (=WhatsApp) to communicate. As long as you write in written language rather than colloquial one, be polite, and remember some appropriate 祝福语 to end the letter (e.g. 顺颂商祺, aka wish your business goes well [formal and literary]), it will be fine.
In China there is not a writing culture as that in western countries (This sentence seems ungrammatical. Who would kindly correct it?). Not so many books or college courses on writing or pubic speech (after all, no election or policy debate in China, why bother learning public speech?). These things are mainly taught in elementary school.


Which online resources (preferably open source / cc) does contain info on which Chinese verbs is separable? Some Chinese verbs are separable (also called verb-object compounds), that is:

  他今天上三個鐘頭的課　(He/she had three hours of class today)

Where 上課 is a separable verb.

As there is no rules on which verbs are separable and not, I'm looking for an online resource where I can look that up. For example, does CC-CEDICT contain info about which verbs is separable and not?

The Pleco app contains this information. It was actually confusing me for a while, but the //'s in the pinyin indicate verb separability. Pleco includes some free dictionaries, but it also allows you to download others for a price. I'm not sure if the verb-separation indications are tied to any particular dictionary.

Don't do this.

When you learn mandarin, you should learn all possible meaning of verb noun, then counter check with your mother tongue language, and think whether it is logical even you speak with you mother tongue language.

In fact, in mandarin, you will have less confusion if you try to understand individual glyph.  Once you get use to each glyph meaning, then you can start learn combination verb/noun/proverb.

Take 上课 as example, from young, native speaker learn the verb 上. Then there will be no surprise when one saw the variance , i.e. when 上 mean "go to do something", then it is obvious the noun like  课 make it an an action. So

上课, 上课学习 (sound redundant but valid)
上学
上堂（Cantonese ),  上堂学习

Unlike English, German, etc  you don't need to deal with abnormal verb changes. thus learning the root glyph let you understanding most written article without knowing tons of mandarin nouns.


Yinwei or Yinvei? 因为 I hear some people say 因为 as “yinwei”, but also some say it sound like “yinvei”. I’m not sure why there is a difference in pronunciation.

/v/ is not an initial found in MSM.

The initial /v/, though, is often found in Northern Mandarin and its branches. In fact, it can still be found, even, in distant branches like Sichuanese.
If you ever saw the 马蜂窝 commercial that aired, ever single night, during the World Cup, you'd certainly notice that 唐僧's "为" is very /v/'d.
You can also refer to the paper The geographic distribution rules and reasons of zero initial “w” pronounced as “v” in Mandarin  by Wang Fan. The abstract for the paper goes into some detail in English:

Abstract:
It  is  universal  to  pronounce  zero  initial  “w”  as  “v”  in Mandarin. Researches  show  that  38%  of  the  people with northern dialect do so with 10% in other dialect districts. When analyzing its features and reasons, we find that the dental fricative sound “v” is indeed a variant of the semi-vowel “w”. Its coming into being is affected by the variation of the  mouth  in  different  phonemes.  It  is  also  related  to  individual  pronunciation  habits  and  the  instability  of  the  pronunciation.  The  universal  “v”  pronunciation  in  northern  dialect  district  is  caused  by  the  stronger  movement  of  the mouth and the face in pronouncing than that in other dialect districts.

The 为 in 因为 should be pronounced wei if you're going for "standard" Mandarin. But, if you want to make yourself sound more Northernized you can also opt for the v.

因为 is always pronounced as /Yīn wèi/

/yin vei/ sounds like a foreigner's mispronunciation of the words

there is no /vei/ sound in Mandarin pinyin (I searched all 4 tones)


Is the following sentence correct? I want to translate to Chinese this phrase: "Please, write on the parcel  "some-text" ".

Is this variant correct? 请在包裹外面上写下 "some-text".

Thank you.

We don't usually say“外面上”，instead，we will say “包裹外面” or just “包裹上”, and they have the same meaning here.

In my opinion, it is better to use 请在包裹上写下 "some-text".


Problem in understanding classical Chinese sentences Recently, a friend asked me about some meaning of several sentences of classical Chinese, which I also can't understand.

对扬王休，用作尊彜。
呜呼！余夙夜维商密，不显，谁和？
汝慎和称五权，维中是以，以长小子于位，实维永宁。
今商孽竞时逋播以辅，余何循？
朕闻维时兆厥工非不显....

In the first sentence, I know it is about a 彜器，but especially the first part I cannot understand(I know 王is king)
In the second sentence, I know what 呜呼 and 夙夜means, but what is meaning of 密 ,显and 和 here?
In the third sentence, I completely cannot understand what is 维中是以，is 维meaningless? And what is 长means here, to extend? And 小子means king?as 小子 means youngsters now(am I correct?)
In the  fourth sentence, from 孽to 播I completely cannot understand what the phrase means. And 余何循 means "how can I follow"?
In the fifth sentence I completely not understand everything after 闻.....
Also in all sentences I know 商 is Shang dynasty.
Can somebody help me in this? This really show me incompetent in classical Chinese. No problem if explaining in Chinese. 先此致谢。
Update:Seems nobody wish to continue the translation, so I try to use my limited knowledge to translate it.

呜呼 is a 叹词 ,no actual meaning
夙夜 day and night
维 no meaning
密 to secret (overthrow)
显 show
和 be with(me)

So the rough meaning is :Ah! I am (trying to) secretly(overthrow) Shang dynasty day and night, I do not show this(to others),who will be with me?
Please correct me if I have done any mistake. Thanks.

對揚王休﹒用作尊彝

this verse come from the inscription on 免尊

對 - 報答, to requite

揚 - 讚揚, to praise

王 - the king, or ruler

休 - 樹蔭 shade of a tree --> 庇蔭 to shield --> 美德 virtue

用作 - ~ use for

尊彝 - 彝 is ritual / sacrificial objects, "尊彝" together is a specialised term of ritual objects, roughly a bronze wine vessel needed two hand to hold ( a big goblet?), see the photo from the above link :)

so, the verse means roughly:

to requite (對) [and] to praise (揚) the virtue (休) of [our] king (王), we make inscription (用作) on this goblet (尊彝).

the norm in ancient china was, when an ritual object (彝器) was made, some text would be inscribed onto it, for the purpose to state the rationale of manufacturing.

  朕聞﹒維時兆厥工﹒非不顯

this verse is from 汲塚周書　大戒解

there's a remark "兆始工官言政治維是始正其官" after "朕實不明", in which roughly "兆" means "始", "工" means "官", 言 (said) 政治 ([good] governing) 維 是 (is) 始 (at the beginning) 正 (correctly [appoint]) 其(ruler's) 官 (official).

so:

朕 - i, a specialised pronoun for ruler / king

聞 - heard

維 - particle

時 - time

兆 - 始也, beginning

厥 - short of

工 - labour, in context, 官也, official / civil servants

非 - not

不顯 - inapparent

the context of this verse is, the 周 dynasty was just founded, there're not enough civil servants to fill the posts, in order to govern the nation.

therefore, i would interpret the verse as:

i (朕, a specialised pronoun) heard (聞) [that]: at the beginning stage (時兆), there's shortage of (厥) labour (工); [such reasoning] is not (非) inapparent (不顯)

if incorporate the context directly:

i (朕, a specialised pronoun) heard (聞) [that]: at the beginning stage (時兆) [of founding a nation], there's lack of (厥) officials (工 aka 官); [such reasoning] is not (非) inapparent (不顯)

  今商孽競時逋播以輔﹒余何循

this verse is from 逸周書﹒成開解

今 - now

商 - 商 dynasty

孽 - 餘孽, ~ rebel party

競時 - race against time, incessantly

逋播 - to flee

以 - by, through

輔 - assist, maybe alliance

余 - i / we

何 - what

循 - 遵循, follow

i would interpret this one as:

now (今), there're rebel party (孽) of previous dynasty (商), fleeing (逋播)  incessantly (競時) with (以) assistance (輔); what can (何) we (余) follow (循) [in this situation]?

  汝慎和稱五權﹒維中是以﹒以長小子於位﹒實維永寧

this verse is from 逸周書　五權解

汝 - you

慎 - cautiously

和 - harmonious, aka "river crab" in that area :(

稱 - to weigh, this one is still used in colloquial cantonese nowadays

五 - five

權 - 權術, art of politics. 權 also has the meaning of steelyard balance (秤錘); that's why "稱" is used.

維 = 唯, only

中 - 中道, middle path

是 - this, maybe "being"

以 - 憑藉, to rely on

以 - thereby

長 - 養育, nurture

小子 - in context, my son, aka 周成王

於 - in

位 - throne

實 - if realise, subjunctive

維 - only

永 - long time

寧 - 安寧, peace

you (汝) [must] weigh (稱) the five (五) art of politics (權) cautiously (慎) and harmoniously (和)

only (維) the middle path (中), this (是) [is] reliable (以)

thereby (以), my son (小子) [could be] nurtured (長) in (於) the throne (位)

if [it's] realised (實), [there would] only (維) [be] peace (寧) for a long time (永)

that's all, i left the second one for others :)

have fun :)

"对扬王休，用作尊彜。"

为了答谢和宣扬王的美意，做了这件尊

  呜呼！余夙夜维商，密不显，谁知。

<<逸周书·大开武解第二十七>> “啊呀!我日夜在想灭商之事，保密而不公开，诸侯有谁响应呢?

  汝慎和，称五权，维中是以，以长小子于位，实维永宁。

<<逸周书·五权解第四十六>
你要认真协调衡量五权，用得适中，以抚养太子在位，实际上就有永久的安宁。

  今商孽竞时，逋播以以辅。余何循

<<逸周书·成开解第四十七>
今商纣余孽还在网罗逃亡流散之人以辅肋他们，我们当做些什么

  朕闻维时兆厥工，非不显，朕实不明。

逸周书·大戒解第五十
我听说只有正直才兆示他的官职。并非此话不明显，而我实在是不明白

ref:

http://www.baike.com/wiki/%E5%85%8D%E5%B0%8A
http://study.ccln.gov.cn/fenke/wenxueyishu/wxjpwz/wxwxpl/94442.shtml
http://guji.artx.cn/article/46213.html
http://www.gushiwen.org/GuShiWen_777415f262.aspx
http://www.gushiwen.org/GuShiWen_c38c538e05.aspx
http://www.xinfajia.net/2515.html


Making sense of 去华山怎么走比较好？ The following dialogue is in NPCR 2, Lesson 23, listening exercise 7 in the exercise book, and my attempt in translating it.

I'm unsure about the sentence marked in red. I have not learned the pattern 比较+adjective until now but my Chinese friend told me that it's the comparative form of the adjective, so in this case "good"->"better".

But I can't make sense of this question. It's better compared to what? I also see a 走 (to walk), but in the next sentence they talk about trains and climbing. So how should I translate it?

比较 here doesn't so much accentuate the comparison between two or more objects/methods. It more gives you an idea of something that has a quality to a somewhat significant degree or above the average. (So in some way, it is a comparison, but a comparison to an unreferenced standard/average).

It can be loosely translated into 'relatively', 'fairly', 'rather' or 'somewhat'.

Another example would be:

  玛丽长得比较胖

  Mary is rather obese/overweight.

In short:

"怎么走？" = "How to go to ... ?"

"去华山怎么走比较好？" = "去华山怎么走？" = "怎么去华山？"


srs deck testing intonations/pronunciations of words with multiple characters I've recently started studying Chinese, and I'm having trouble hearing the tones for words with multiple characters.  For instance, I have trouble hearing the difference between 汉语 (hànyǔ) and 韩语 (hányǔ), or 哪里 (nǎlǐ) and 那里 (nàli).

Is there an SRS deck available for learning tones for multi-character words?

Ideally the front of the card would just be the audio for a single multi-character word, and then the back of the card would be what the characters/tones are.

edit: I should add that I am mostly fine with hearing individual characters in isolation.  So when hearing 汉 (hàn) and 韩 (hán), or 哪 (nǎ) and 那 (nà), I can almost always tell the correct intonation.  My only problem is when hearing multiple characters together.

The website

https://www.archchinese.com/mandarin_chinese_tone_drill.html

was useful for me for learning to recognize the tones. You can practice your listening skills doing the following exercise. You have to press Play and you will hear a word (you can repeat as many times you want) and you have to choose which tone you heard. Then, it will show in the bottom if you were right or wrong and the actual word you heard. I think if you create an account you can also use it for multiple syllable words. I believe after some days of practicing, your skills for recognizing the tones will improve quickly.

Sometimes I feel it’s hard to get why western people have difficulties in learning tones, because it’s natural for me. Maybe you need to change your mentality a little bit? Imagine if you’re signing with 4 tones (or 5 if you include neutral tone), you need to sing on the right tone to make it sound right. If you can sing, you should be able to master the tones.

I don’t know how you learnt Chinese. For me, other than being a mother-tongue, I remember when I learnt the Chinese alphabets in school, we need to read it out loudly in four tones everyday. Whenever I learn a character, we learn it in four tones, and learn characters in every tone, and make words and sentences out of it. I was grown up in a small town in the northern China, where kids speak dialects in school, but transferred to a school in one of the capital cities in grade 4, where kids speak mandarin in school. I didn’t take a single day to learn how to communicate in mandarin because it is just how you read books out loud. Some classmates came to help me, but found that I didn’t need help and they got surprised. The dialect I used to speak mainly differs in tones with mandarin. So, the story told me tone is really not that hard, and maybe the environment is more important. When you are in the right environment, your brain can force you to adapt, and over time, the environment can help you reinforce and  develop feeling for the language subconsciously without trying too hard. If you’re in China, go out and talk to people. If you’re not in China, watch Chinese dramas or YouTube channels in mandarin, leave it on even when you’re not watching, and indulge yourself in that language environment. Over time you will find yourself speak the right tone without trying.


你 vs. 妳 for second person When writing to a female, is it appropriate to use 妳 for “you”?

Could it be misunderstood as a reference to breasts or milk?

Example:
我见过你面带笑容，我见过你面带愁容。

妳 is supposed to be the female second-person pronoun, but I don't find it being used as often as the more generic 你 anymore, however。

And no. There is no connotation re: breasts of milk with the use of the word.

Not sure why some posters have the assumption that 你 is only used for both male and female in Simplified Chinese. Is it how it is used in Taiwan? As someone who can only write in Traditional Chinese, it seems that 你 is used interchangeably for the most part (even among my friends from Taiwan on social media, and books from Taiwan, etc.). Some people do use 妳 for female, but it seems rather uncommon nowadays.

The reason for using this word instead of 你 is because the radical of the word (The left part of 妳 in this case) is 女 (Girl, Female).

It's just a nicer way to refer to a girl.

Just like in English we got He and She, the Chinese have 他 and 她 (Even though pronounced the same!)

Just like in English, the girls will trip out (at least got her eyes wide open) if you referred to her "He"!

Same goes Chinese, although the case and degree of tripping out will be fewer and lesser because regardless of the word, they are ALL pronounced the same! And 你、他 is more like "neutral" state of "You" and "It(!?!?!?)". So girls wouldn't think too much about it!


What's the most accessible translation for 修仙 or 修真? Can I use xiuxian?
It means taking pills of immortality and cultivate oneself to become an immortal, short for cultivate immortality, can you understand the latter easily if it suddenly appears in English article?

修仙 = cultivate oneself to become an immortal
after become 神仙 or 仙 , one can live outside of the mundane world 吸風飲露，不食五穀 (able to exist and function by using the energy from nature, no need to eat)

~

修真 = cultivate oneself to achieve spiritual enlightenment
修真者，借假修真也。道教中，学道修行，求得真我，去伪存真 (remove the fault and keep the truth) 为“修真”。

Edit:
Scripps wrote:

Is there any noun to represent that?

修仙 short for 修練成仙之法 (study and train oneself to become an immortal)
修真 short for 修硏尋得真我之法 (Study and learn to find one's truth self)
If you must use simple terms to describe them, you can call '修仙' as 'immortality seeking' and '修真' as 'truth seeking'

if it suddenly appears in English article

What make you think such story are any different than English fantasies, which the protagonist and antagonist keep getting new abilities along the way?

Even many card game show similar traits, i.e. obtained/advanced a "new level" or "gaining new abilities".


Meaning of 泡 I first encountered this word in the brand of a kid's drink, O泡.  When I looked it up I saw that it meant something like "bubble", and was (ironically for the name of a drink) the classifier for urine.

Then I saw on TV someone offer 一杯泡水 to a guest (It might have been 一泡杯水 but I read the subtitles and 泡 was definitely there).

So what is 泡水? Bubble water? Google images suggests it's water with slices of lemon/lime.

And while we're on this character, how does one use it as a classifier for urine, perhaps someone could use it in a sentence ("I'm going to do a trickle of urine?").

You are right in saying that, in general, 泡 means a bubble/bubbles.

When it comes to drinks, 泡水 is actually a verbal phrase, usually preceded by a noun. It refers to water being mixed with other ingredients to create some sort of makeshift drink. For example 柠檬泡水 = lemon water, which is essentially lemon slices submerged in water.

Another usage of this verbal phrase simply refers to dipping oneself in water. 我去游泳池里泡一下水. (I am going to hop in the swimming pool for a while).

一杯泡水 sounds very strange to me. It could be regional slang for 气水 (soft drink/soda) or it could be the result of making a makdeshift drink. You will need to show me the ad so I can understand the context.

As a noun, 泡水 is an alternative phrase for 羊水, or the amniotic fluid that protects a foetus in the mother's womb. It's of course commonly referred to as simply water.

As a classifier, it's not just used for urine, but quite often for excrement as well. The following are very idiomatic:

撒一泡尿 (to urinate)
拉一泡屎 (to defecate)

you can think about this word as cook, for example, cook water, when you said cook tea, it is 泡茶.


What are the most common mistakes when pronouncing Pinyin? For example, 'shuo' is sometimes mistakenly pronounced 'shou'. 'Juan' is often pronounced 'zhuan'.

Can anyone think of any others? I want to highlight some common mistakes to teach pinyin pronunciation.

For people from south China, the following may be confused:

z / zh
c / ch
s / sh
n / l
l / r

Many Pinyin input methods include "fuzzy pronunciations", a feature that automatically matches these confusable pronunciations. For example, if you input zui, the results will also include all characters of zhui.
The Google Pinyin input method uses the following list:

z / zh
c / ch
s / sh
an / ang
en / eng
in / ing
l / n
f / h
r / l
k / g
ian / iang
uan / uang

ng=> mg

zh=> ch

ch=> zh

?n=> ?ng

zhu??=>qu??


What is the meaning and translation of my niece's name? My young niece, whose birthday is in principle coming up at the end of the month (Feb 29), is named 润润. When I look it up in Google Translate, it returns “wet”.  Other dictionaries show the same thing, even a guide that is specific to names.

Does this have some other meaning such as an idiom or context-specific usage, or is it a pretty sound, or what?

Also, how is it properly pronounced? I hear a short vowel sometimes like the word “in”, but also seems to sound very close to “run” more often.  Given that English is tone deaf, what at least is the best American English sound to use?

(They are in Kunming, Yunan. I don't know the differences between college Mandarin and local Yunaneese, but that's another question.)

Probably it is because it was a leap year (闰年). 闰 and 润 have same pronunciation, which is similar to English word 'ruin' (even the tone is the same) but shorter.
闰 means intercalation and 润 means moist, smooth literally and nurturing, nourishing/nourished prosperity and affluence figuratively. 润 is often a good word and commonly used in people and organization names.

Yeah, Reechen is right, more like 'ru in' said quickly.

Ask a Chinese to say 'under' and they will often say 'wunder', because 'u' is 'wu' when followed by a consonant in Pinyin, which is Chinese sounds written with Roman letters. The combination of phonemes 'g wu n' often seems to produce a sound like 'g win' or 'gwu in' in some speakers. It is pretty hard for anyone to say 'rw' or 'r wu n' so I suppose that is why it comes out a bit like 'rin' sometimes.

Ask a Chinese to say 'wood' and their lips will get tangled and produce a sound like 'ud'. I like doing that with my girlfriend! 'What's it made of?' Until she hits me of course.

滚 is written in Pinyin 'gun' but is pronounced 'gwun'. It means something like PFO.

利润 (lirun) means profits. 润 can also mean embellish, so together maybe 润润 is 'a profitable embellishment for our lives'

You can't read too much into names though. I know a girl called 杨一， so her first name as we see it is '一‘ = ’yi' = 1。'Your the one for me.'!


What is the difference between 准时 and 按时? These both seem to mean "on time" or "on schedule" (compared to 及时, which I believe means "in good time", i.e. before the scheduled / agreed time).
Is there a difference between them?

准 = accurate; precise
准时 = on time/ on schedule (event or action take place at a precisely scheduled/ appointed time)

~

按 = according to; base on
按时 = on schedule/ on time (event or action take place strictly following a scheduled/ at an appointed time)
Also: 按时 (base on hourly schedule/ on schedule timely), 按年(base on an annual schedule ) 按月(base on a monthly schedule ), 按人头 (base on head count)
Example: 按时吃药, 按年交税, 按月付款, 按人头付款 ( Take medicine on schedule hourly/ timely, pay taxes base on an annual schedule , pay a sum base on a monthly schedule, pay a sum base on head count)

Note:
准时 can be adverb or adjective - you can say "he is always 准时" but not "he is always 按时" because 按时 is an adverb

answer by web search,e.g. https://hinative.com/zh-CN/questions/206511  temari: 按时 in time, 准时 on time,...
jingjing: 准时是形容词，可以在句子里直接作谓语，比如，我一向很准时。
按时是副词，不可以说，我很按时....
 kittysama:按时带点被动性，准时更强调主动性。...


Why the sudden rise in usage of "吓死宝宝了"? 吓死宝宝了

All of a sudden this "phrase" (if we can even call it that) is everywhere. I'm reading it, hearing it and seeing it everywhere.

What gives to the sudden rise in usage of this expression?

I think it's because of the Internet, which made this sentence popular. There was once a boy in Sina Weibo (China's version of Twitter) who sent a threat to a girl. The girl on Sina Weibo replied to express her dissatisfaction. The message was "吓死宝宝了".

It soon got around on Weibo. Many people were talking about this. So now many people use this sentence to express their discontent by force or threat.

As @sis say, this sentence comes from Weibo (Chinese use it instead of Twitter).

吓死宝宝了means

  Oh My God

Yeah , maybe you can understand .


What's the lyrics to Onra's "Like the Seasons"? Onra's "Like the Seasons" on 网易 has a few guesses to it's lyrics:

  风，在外面淫……

  你……在外面你……

I thought it sounds like 不在外面营, I did think it sounded like 淫 at first but I don't think it's a song for sex ed.

Any ideas?

Genius says it's just an:

  [Instrumental]

but there are obviously samples with speech on it.

YouTube comments:

  有人听出采样在唱什么吗？求采样

anyone know what the sample is singing?

  Anybody have a translation?

It's perhaps Shanghainese Mandarin. This song tries to create an old atmosphere from the early 20th century in Shanghai. Onra probably intentionally make it very blurred and unclear. But back then, people who do not live in Beijing their Mandarin accent is not accurately. They would mix their hometown local accent with the standard Mandarin accent.

After listening this song couple times. As a Shanghainese, it sounds like "我...在怀念你" (I'm missing you) to me.Some comments under 网易云 also mentioned this. In the song, "我" sounds like "吾", which is close to its Shanghainese pronunciation; and "怀念" also sounds close to Shanghainese. So it's a Shanghainese lady speaking Mandarin. However, I cannot give you a 100% sure answer.

Is just a joke, a sense of humor in which our chinese people use homophone to mislead the meaning.

But the true meaning is tough to guess,because it maybe the 上海 local accent.

侬，怀念你 maybe


Difference between 语言 and 言语? According to line dictionary, both of these mean 'language'. From looking at the examples list, 语言 seems to be a more literal translation of 'language', for example if one wanted to say "Chinese is my favourite language", I think one could write this as 中语是我最喜欢的语言. On the other hand 言语 seems to be used when referring to someone's 'use of language' as opposed to languages from different countries. For instance if one wanted to translate "he used aggressive language" one would use 言语.

Is this the right kind of idea?

言语 is not a frequently used words. It is a spoken word in north(at least Beijing,north-easten).

It means 'talk(talking), speak(speaking)' ,Depending on the context, it can take the place of any words that means 'talk or speak with someone'.

  你需要跟我言语一声儿. (言语 means consult, ask or notify... )

"he used aggressive language"

It is not incorrect to use 言语. But 语言 or 话 is more common.

As a native Chinese living in mainland China, I haven't heard or seen a single 言语 in the past 10 years. AFAIK this word is almost extinct and can only be found in old books.

Try to avoid saying 言语 because people will have an increased chance to get confused. Depending on your intention you can use 说 (v.), 话(n.), 提醒(notify, v.) instead.

  你需要跟我言语一声儿 ✖
  你要跟我说一声儿 ✔
  你要跟我提醒一声儿 ✔ (less common, scenario dependent)


Difference in word order of these two adverbs: 再 又 My teacher brought this up and now I want to know:

When there are two verbs in a sentence (one's a helping verb) and you want to use 又 or 再, why is their placement different?

I got these example sentences from a native:

昨天下雨，今天下雨了，明天又會下雨。

今天會再來。

It seems like when you use 又, it goes before both verbs, helping verb & main verb (會 & 下）

But when you use 再, it goes between the helping verb & main verb, 會 & 來 (unless you really do want to modify the helping verb itself, but usually that's not what people mean).

So...why do these two words for "again" not go in the same place in a sentence, even though they're both adverbs?

Don't know why, but the difference makes intuitive sense to me...I think.

I am trying to give two differences between 再 and 又 for you.

Originally, 再 means 'second time', 又 means 'second time', or 'third time', or even more. But now, 再 sometimes also means repeatedly. In this sense, the two words,再，又, are replaceable.
再 emphasizes the two concepts (verbs/nouns) must be the same nature, while 又 is not limited.

The more important thing is to know some examples.

Usually, the 再 in the following examples can not be replaced by 又.

再見。          See you a second time, so it means 'see you', 'see you later', 'see you again', or 'Auf Wiedersehen' in German.
再會。          This sentence has the same meaning as 再見.
一而再，再而三   Do the same thing once, twice, and three times, so it means 'again and again.
再三            Do the same thing twice and three times, i.e. it means 'again and again' too.

The 又 in the following examples can not be replaced by 再.

[既...又...]  襄兒既聰明,又可愛。   Xianger is not only bright but also cute.
[又...又...]  又驚又喜；又快又好    Shocked and happy； fast and good
[又名]        中國，又名海内，諸夏。 China is also known as '海内' or '諸夏'.
              牛頓來了，又走了。    Newton came and then left.

For your question, 再會下雨 is indeed a wrong expression. Let me try to make is clear.

再會下雨 means "again 'could rain' ". But once today is coming, 'could rain' will become 'rain' or 'not rain'. So the same thing 'could rain' will not happen again tomorrow. On the other hand, 會再下雨 means 'could rain again'. There is no problem in this expression.

昨天下雨，今天下雨了，明天又會下雨.

In the above sentence, 又會下雨 is right, because 下雨 and 會下雨 can be joined by 又。

PS: Thanks for your interesting question. A piece of advice from me: I think you'd better learn from examples, it is helpful.

“又” means it is happened again, or it is/will passively happened
“再” means it will happen again, and should initiative happened


How to say something is "an acquired taste" in Chinese? A : "Do you like to eat Durian?"
B : "No not really"
A : "Yeah, I guess it's really an acquired taste"

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

可能需要慢慢地适应。
要慢慢来才会欣赏。

An idiom can be appropriate as a pithy reply:

一回生，二回熟。


Why is 足 both "foot" and "enough"? 足 is an ancient character meaning "foot". However, it also means "enough" or "sufficient", and this second definition is also very old. Consider this excerpt:

  兵甲已足。——诸葛亮《出师表》

This is from 《出师表》, dating from 227-228 AD.

So why does 足 have these two very different meanings? Its oracle bone origin definitely suggests it means foot, so how did the "enough" definition come about?

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

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

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

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

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

Maybe because a foot is a measurement 'unit' so it gives the idea of a "bit" as any other small units (bit => bit more => enough)

足 is a foot
  尺 is unit of measurement (very old, 3000 years old at least)

足 and 尺 are obviously related, so MAYBE some meaning was transfer...... the concept could evolve: bit => bit more => enough

I really don't know!


早已 and 早就: what's the difference? To my understanding, both hold the meaning of "already happened long ago". What are the nuances though? Are they interchangeable?

Examples:

他早已打定主意了。 (He made up his mind long ago.)
他早就搬走了。 (He moved out long ago.)

Thanks

早已 and 早就 are different. They can be exchangeable in practice and may or may not have the same meaning. But their grammar structure are different.

Examples-1:

他搬走了.(He moved) (To answer what happened to him?)

他已经搬走了.(Since he moved, he is no longer here)

他早已经搬走了.(1) (Since he moved, he is no longer here. That happened long time ago.)

他早已搬走了.(same as 1)

Examples-2:

他搬走了.(He moved)

他早搬走了.(He moved)(That happened long time ago.)

他早就搬走了.(He moved)(I am sure that happened long time ago.) (How come you do not even know it ??? )

早已 has the basic meaning of 已经. The combination logic is the 早 is used to modify 已经.

早就 has the basic meaning of 早 as adverb to modify the verb 搬走. 就 is to emphasize and to be very sure about it.

早已 is more formal and is mostly used in written.
Sometimes we may also use the phrase 早就已经, which is pretty much like the combination of 早已 and 早就.


How modern Chinese singing works if Chinese has tones Since Chinese is a tonal language, I'm wondering how this affects Chinese singing. Specifically wondering about the modern Chinese version of modern American pop music, which has relatively simple structure and chords. But if Chinese lyrics require tone changes, it seems that somehow this must be incorporated into the music and yet distinguished from simple tonal changes in the music itself. So wondering how this is handled.

For example, if the music tones go up, but the word is going up too, not sure what happens. That sort of stuff. Maybe it is easy to tell from the context, I am not sure which is the reason for the question.

Short answer: Simply speaking, remove all the original tones of each character and follow the tune of the music. Yes it is hard to recognize if you never read the lyrics before, even for native speakers.

簡單來講中文與及英文都是一樣的
調音部分一樣會影響唱歌的時候的大小聲音以及
唱歌的時候的美感與及聲帶的發音位置也會影響
所以調音是一樣的哦


In 我只是为了让你觉得我在关心你，然后以此在逃避, who is escaping? Does it refer to an escape route? 我只是为了让你觉得我在关心你，然后以此在逃避

I would translate it like: I just want you to think I care about you, and use this to escape.

My questions:

Who is escaping, the person talking or the person she's talking to?

然后以此在逃避 Could be referring to an escape route? Does the word route appear?

You are almost there.

  我只是为了让你觉得我在关心你，然后以此在逃避

I just want you to think I care about you,
and use this(refer the act"you think I care about you" or "I care about you", both could be right. Can not know since the information is not given)

to escape(from something. [Escape from what? it's not given]).

I don't understand the sentence, but i think the last sentence should be" 因此我在逃避，"rather than"以此在逃避"
So, its means I am escaping.


Does "女朋友" work for older couples? I'm going to be visiting China next year, along with my father.  My parents are divorced, but my dad is now dating someone who will likely be coming with us.  They aren't married, so I'm not sure what word to use to introduce them.  If I say something like, "这位是我爸爸，和我爸爸的女朋友", would that cause confusion?  Is there another word for this, or would something like this be uncommon in China?

Using archaic phrases like 红颜知己 or 忘年之交 is a bad suggestion, these phrases come straight from dated Chinese movies. No modern human talk like this in real life. It is like saying " She is my father's fair lady" or " she is my dad's dear confidant." in English.

If they are very close, saying she is 女朋友 (girl friend) is perfectly fine in today's open minded society.

The safest option is to call her your dad's 朋友 (friend). or 好朋友 (good friend) if you are not sure they are officially a couple or not.

女朋友 is girlfriend in English, but in Chinese, it also implies these two people that are dating, are also sexually interacting, regardless of their age. If that is the case, then you can introduce her as your dad's 女朋友. but if they are only dating, and not sexually interacting, then please use 红颜知己 which means a very beautiful woman that is getting to know your dad. Or more commonly, you can use 女伴，a female that is dating your dad. On the other hand, if your dad is dating a much younger woman, you need to introduce her as his 忘年之交, which means ageless true love, or people may think that she is into your dad's money.

Also in some situation, 女朋友 and 女伴 could both means bitch or hoe, so to be safe use 红颜知己 if they are similar age, and 忘年之交 if one is older.


Is it possible to get novels written in Chinese and English on the same page to download? Is anyone aware of where I can find novels for download which contain both English and Chinese on the same page?

I think the moderator hit the nail on the head here by pointing out that we want to help you to be able to find what you are looking for, which often comes down to having the right keywords, i found that 漢英對照 works rather well

All of Jane Eyre (which is public domain) complete with English MP3's co.mes up along with others when searching google for the following search terms: 漢英對照小說 在線.

I'd be curious to hear more about what you are looking to do with the back-to-back texts.  If it is to read through and learn to read in Chinese, by using the English to refer to, I would do so sparingly as the books you're most likely to find in this format are English texts translated into Chinese, so translations, not real Chinese" and they'll be devoid of many culturally relevant common expressions such as 你吃了嗎?

Depending on your level, and what you are aiming to accomplish, I would suggest you may also consider parallel texts, i.e texts on the same topic, but not translations of each other (they really stressed this in interpreting school).  This will keep things in context for you and allow you do develop a more organic language base that will be more naturally and with more pizzazz.  For an interpreter, reading parallel texts allows them to focus on complete ideas rather than words.

There are actually many more advantages on parallel readings versus translations, perhaps for a later discussion.

Best of luck!

I have a copy of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It has Chinese on odd pages and English on even pages. Such books are cheap and you can buy them in most big book shops in China.


Origin: of the phrase 不让[能]踩门槛 Looking for something authoritative.

What is the origin of the 不让[能]踩门槛 phrase?
Earliest usage?

I don't know if my answer is absolutely right.
There is a famous book named Di-Zi-Gui (弟子规）from Confucianism（儒学）. You know, Confucianism was prevailing for a long time in China. As I know, Di-Zi-Gui is a book to teach children moral precepts and standards.

《弟子规》：“勿践阈，勿跛倚，勿箕踞，勿摇髀……”
The first one is 勿践阈
 勿 means 'don't 不能',践 means ‘踩’，阈 means ‘门槛’

However, I don't know if this is the earliest usage. From my memory, I was told by my grandparents that 门槛 means all the trouble and setback in our life，we better walking cross the trouble instead of stepping right onto (踩到）the trouble. So that is what we usually do in temples--不踩门槛，跨过门槛。
I hope this is helpful!

You already checked out the Great God 百度， Knower of All Things??

http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/131761825.html

忌踩门槛这一风俗始于先秦时期, 那时臣子门出入君主的门户时，不能踩着门槛，只能侧身进出，区分地位尊卑。这也是后世不踩门槛表示尊重的来源。另外，在过去，门槛的木枋与房梁正顶的主枋取自同一根木方枋。正梁有镇宅护平安的“效用”，门槛自然也具备护宅镇家的“功能”。


What is na4zi4pang2 (pinyin) in the decomposition of na4 (那)? The New Practical Chinese Reader introduces the following decomposition: na4 (那) = na4zi4pang2 + yi4 (阝).

I understand that 阝 represents radical 163 (yi4).

Na4zi4pang2 (pinyin) looks close to radical 74 (yue4, 月), but only close. It apparently is not a proper Chinese word or phrase that can be looked up in a dictionary.

My current guess that it is an arbitrary construct for a situation where one of the basic constituents of a composite character is not another basic character nor a radical, yet something that is also made up of strokes, and that the pinyin name is the concatenation of stroke names.

Could an expert and/or native speaker please confirm or otherwise clarify. I'm especially interested whether such constructs have Unicode font representations (and what the Unicode representation U+xxxx of na4zi4pang2 would then be).

There is no  radical, but the left part of 那 can be

冄 rǎn (the same as 冉)
U+5184
Seal Script

That's because in the seal script, 那 is written as

The left part is 冄, and the right part (radical) is 邑. So in 說文解字, it is described as

从邑，冄聲。

But it is better not to call 冄 a "radical", because modern dictionaries and older dictionaries haven't listed it as a radical.
It is interesting in 康熙字典, 那 has these interchangeable characters:

But they are obsolete now, you should not use them.

If you use the too native2ascii  you can convert any character / text to its ASCII representation.

Applied to 那字旁 阝you get \u90a3\u5b57\u65c1 \u961d


What does "总价,以分为单位" mean? I'm working in a software project and the documentation for some component I need to integrate is only in Chinese. There's a table that has a field named "Amount" and its description is "总价,以分为单位".

Google translate gives me "Total price, divided into units", and some other page says it's something like "Total Price , in minutes".

The problem is that I feel like the part after the comma is important, and neither of them seem like they fit. The "Amount" field is about money.

The point is when 分 is used as the unit(单位) of money, it means cent, i.e. one hundredth of 元 (the basic monetary unit of China).

  价值等于某货币单位百分之一的单位 [cent]

So 总价,以分为单位 means total price in cents.

总价：(Total price）.

以分为单位（Counted by minute）, this means every minute you should pay xxxx, and how much time you've taken, so the total price is yyyyy.

PS：This can be also extended like：

The total price is xxxx, counted by (some unit). The "some unit" may be unit of time, unit of weight, unit of others……ect.

Are you calculating how long you will finish that component and how much you can earn from this? If yes, mine is the answer.


Correction of 我在饭店里把晚饭吃了 我在饭店里把晚饭吃了吗 =》 My textbook gives me the correct one: 我在饭店里吃晚饭了。

My questions are

(1) Why do this sentence not use 把 structure?

(2) If I rewrite as below, which is grammatically correct?

我在饭店里把三碗米饭吃了。
我在饭店里把三碗米饭吃完了。
我在饭店里把晚饭吃过三次。(In the restaurant I have had the dinner three times)

Usually when you use 把 you are using passive mode. That was not needed here. You're basically saying "at the restaurant, the rice was consumed by me." It is understandable, but it is also rather awkward.

I would have to say all three of your alternate versions have the same problem.

a) I, at the restaurant, 3 bowls of rice were consumed

b) I, at the restaurant, 3 bowls of rice were fully consumed

c) I, at the restaurant, 3 dinners were consumed.

It would be far more natural to use active vice:

d) 我在飯店裏吃了三碗飯

e) no need to say 吃完了, it is implied

f) I would have said 我去過那家飯店三次了 without specifying dinner. But that's just me.

I think the better answer will be 我在那家饭店吃过三次晚饭。 我在饭店里吃了晚饭。


How to say "thank you for ..."? In order to say "thank you", I can say 谢谢 or 谢谢你. What if I want to be more specific and say "thank you for (something)"?

As an example, suppose I was invited for dinner at someone's place, and I want to write a card to the host on which I say "thank you for inviting me for dinner", how would I say that? Or how would I say "thank you for the gift"?

Same as English just without the for.

谢谢 + what.

"thank you for the gift" = 谢谢 + 礼物 － maybe you would say 你送给我的礼物 or just 你的礼物

"you for inviting me for dinner" = 谢谢 + 邀请 + 晚餐 - so altogether you would say 谢谢你那天邀请我吃晚饭 (which is for what already happened - seeing as you're writing a card, so obviously you're thanking for the dinner you've already eaten and not just for the invitation for an upcoming dinner)

It depends on the reason and the degree of gratitude.

If someone gives you something physical or someone does something for you, you say 謝謝 in Mandarin.

If someone gives you something physical, you say 多謝 in Cantonese.

If someone does something for you, you say 唔該 in Cantonese.

If someone does you a really big favor and you want to express deep gratitude, you can say 勞駕/有勞 in Mandarin.

BTW, if you want someone to do something for you, you also say 請/麻煩 in Mandarin or 唔該 in Cantonese before the requested action, e.g. 唔該借借/請讓一讓 (meaning something like "Please" or "Excuse me").


How the meaning is derived for 得意忘形? How the meaning is derived for 得意忘形?
得意忘形 déyìwàngxíng grow dizzy with success; be carried away by one's success so pleased as to lose one's sense of measure

It is always good practice to look up the etymology of an idiom whenever you are learning one:

（阮籍）嗜酒能嘯，善彈琴。當其得意，忽忘形骸。《晉書．卷四九．阮籍列傳》(教育部成語字典)
Ruan Ji enjoys wine and a good wail; he is also skilled in playing the guqin. Whenever he derives joy (from these), without warning, he forgets his physical form.

Ruan Ji was one of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove (竹林七賢). They developed a particularly hedonistic lifestyle – it is important to understand the original (positive) meaning of the idiom with this context.
While in modern Chinese, we see 得意 as an indivisible word that means 'to be proud of oneself; to be complacent', it is separable in classical Chinese (and has a different meaning too), which is arguably more accurate when we are interpreting idioms with a literal approach.
得 is a verb meaning 'to get; to acquire'.
意 is obscurely polysemous. It can mean 'idea' (e.g., 意義, 意在言外 in modern Chinese) and 'intention' (e.g., 意圖, 不懷好意). But here, it should mean 'interest; pleasure'. Consider another similar example:

醉翁之意不在酒，在乎山水之間也。《醉翁亭記》
This joy from the mountains and the water he feels within his mind; he merely ascribes it to the wine.

This suggests, in very crude terms, that the enjoyment of a drinker is not derived from the wine itself, but the environment in which the wine is drunk. In modern Chinese, we say someone is having an ulterior motive if we say 醉翁之意不在酒.

However, idioms are known to be especially prone to semantic shift. 得意忘形 is no longer used to describe someone as being hedonistic (which is neutral, perhaps somewhat approving), but careless due to extreme glee (which is definitely disapproving).

References
Lian, Xianda. “The Old Drunkard Who Finds Joy in His Own Joy -Elitist Ideas in Ouyang Xiu's Informal Writings.” Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews (CLEAR), vol. 23, 2001, pp. 1–29. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/495498. Accessed 20 Apr. 2021.
Hegel, Robert E. "A Record of the Pavilion of an Intoxicated Old Man," in The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature, ed. Victor H. Mair (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994), pp. 590–591.

I highly disagree with what L Parker said:

It is always good practice to look up the etymology of an idiom whenever you are learning one

First off, making blanket statements about learning methodology will always be a dangerous pitfall for whoever is making the statement, and for whoever is listening to the statement, no matter who is involved, and no matter what the statement is. I had to learn this the hard way. The "ideal" forms of learning realized by relatively seasoned people can only be true in very specific contexts.
Personally, I would never even think to bother with researching the etymology or whatever have you when learning idioms. I'm not going to discourage other people from doing that, though, because, maybe, knowing the etymology to a given idiom might give the learner a certain boost in confidence, and thus inspire him or her to achieve more. And, likewise, there are a ton, even infinite, possible scenarios when when an experienced person's advice can go totally wrong. The moral of the story here is: take people's advice with a grain of salt.
With that out of the way, looking the etymology of an idiom, in my eyes, is horrible practice. Asking questions of the nature of "why" is the complete antithesis to progress. If you want to progress in Chinese, or progress in anything, for that matter, I suggest you tone down your level of curiosity. Only worry about things like etymology and such if you are a scholar in a certain field. I used to be curious, and I used look up the etymologies for Chinese characters/idioms here and there, and then I realized what a major pitfall that kind of behavior is.
Back to your question. 得意忘形 is actually pretty self-explanatory. 得意 means gain satisfaction, or something along those lines （得 is gain, and 意 is meaning）. 忘 means forget, and 形 means shape, as in the shape of your body/personality/being/spirit/etc. i.e. you're so excited or happy or fulfilled or whatever that you basically lose your regular composure. That's basically how you parse it.


Help with Cantonese correct translation I thouhgt about posting here twice as I know rules do not allow for users to simply ask for translations. But after a few efforst in trying to translate it myself, I decided to ask for your kind help.
The phrase that i would like to translate is here below. Does it mean "I am generous. Kim."? Or is there anything I am missing out?

睇下我嘅. Kim

Thank you.

"睇下我嘅"  (Taei har ngo gea)

"take a look at mine"

It is definitely colloquial Cantonese.

These kinds of "rough" phrases are usually meant to indicate something to boast or show off or a demeaning comparison, like, "pay attention, you might learn something"; "this is how I would do it"; "you see those biceps?"

This phrase therefore has to be a follow-on to demean someone else's poor performance.

I am a Chinese, but I don't know "睇下我嘅" means. It is not Chinese as I know. So you may want to get the correct Chinese sentence.


Same radical/character with different pronunciation I'm currently learning the 214 radicals and also the words for HSK1. I have noticed a few times that some characters in the radical list have a different pronunciation to the characters in the HSK1 vocabulary.

For example, in HSK1 the character 丨 is pronounced 'gǔn' but in the list of radicals it is 'shū'. My chinese keyboard recognises both pinyin spellings of the character.

Another example is 丶 which is 'dian' in the list of radicals but 'zhǔ' in HSK1

Could someone explain this to me? Is it just that when we are talking about radicals within a character we use one pronunciation and when using that radical as an independant character we use another pronunciation?

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

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

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

I cant recall any character pronouced both gun and shu or dian and zhu...maybe I am a fake chinese
the reason why a character have two or more pronouciation is a very long story.my english is not good so that I can tell you it only in chinese.if you can read a long chinese text or you can find someone help you translate,let me know and I will write it for you


如何把名词形式的 'Nothing' 翻译成中文 How to translate the English noun form of Nothing into Chinese? Here are 2 English sentences, both have the word 'Nothing' in it in the noun form. I am wondering if it can be translated into Chinese while preserving as much of its original meaning as possible.

以下有两个英文句子，都用名词版的 无。我想知道是否可以尽量但保持原意思的把他翻译成中文:

What do rich people want, poor people have, and is greater than god?
Answer: Nothing (as a noun). In Chinese, the question would be "什么东西有钱人想要，穷人有，还比上帝伟大？" I guess one could say "没有这个东西" "没有任何东西", which is really a phrase and would barely make sense in the answer:富人想要没有任何东西，穷人有没有任何东西，没有任何东西比上帝还伟大. Changing it to 富人不想要/需要任何东西，穷人没有任何东西，没有任何东西比上帝还伟大 makes it slightly less cleverly worded, and the first 2 parts turn from a positive statement (the rich 'want' and the poor 'have') into a negative statement ('do not want' vs 'do not have') respectively.
There is an American comedy TV series called I Dream of Jeannie. For those who don't know, it is about a 2000 year old genie from ancient Baghdad called Jeannie. She means well but always causes trouble for her master, Tony, with her enthusiasm and mischievous attitude and sometimes purposely go out of her way to annoy him/do things her way. Tony wants to keep her and her magic a secret because he cannot explain it to people in modern day America.

Now, in one episode, there is a nosy kid in the neighbourhood, and he keeps climbing trees and peak inside Tony's windows and is on the verge of finding out their secret. Jeannie and Tony are annoyed so Jeannie says "I will turn him into a frog!". Tony is horrified and says "You will turn him into nothing!" He really meant that he forbids Jeannie to turn him into anything, in Chinese, "你不可以把他变成任何东西!. But Jeannie took this sentence to be a command that means 你要you will 把他变成 turn him into [Nothing] ie, make him disappear. So Jeannie then says "That is an excellent idea!" and proceeds to do so.

The double meaning of the sentence/word is what makes her reaction funny. I am wondering if it can be translated to Chinese and still be funny. If not, what happens when translators really can't translate something? Do they replace it with something else or just let it gets lost in translation and ignore it?

It is a real problem in Chinese translation, because there is no such word as “nothing” in Chinese. If you want to translate “nothing” into Chinese, you will have to paraphrase it into something else, such as “not anything”.

  I have nothing.

  → I do not have anything.

  → 我没有任何东西。

  → 我什么也没有。

Here comes the problem:

You want to translate the following sentence:

  You will turn him into nothing.

You can only paraphrase it into:

  You will not turn him into anything.

  你不会把他变成任何东西。

or

  You will turn him into nonexistence.

  你将把他变成不存在。

You want to translate the pun? I don't think it is possible to make such a pun in Chinese.

I think the translation can be based on meaning, not actual words. The result may sound more natural.

1)
什么东西是富人没有的，穷人有的，而且比上帝还伟大？
答案：没有这样的东西。

2)
你会把他变得猪狗不如。or 你会把他变得一文不值。


Should names in idiomatic expressions be capitalised? As the title indicates, I'd like to know the proper way of writing Pinyin for idiomatic expressions that contain names. Should those names be capitalised? Some dictionaries say that they should (Pleco for instance), but after asking two native speakers who both said that they typically aren't capitalised, I also think it's reasonable that they are treated as words or expressions today and shouldn't be capitalised even if they originally refer to names.

Here are two examples:

徐娘半老
"xúniángbànlǎo" or "Xúniángbànlǎo"

杞人忧天
"qǐrényōutiān" or "Qǐrényōutiān"

Pinyin is never an established written language. We have a standard, 《汉语拼音正词法基本规则》, but no one actually bothered to learn it. In short, it treats pinyin as if it is a romanized language. You follow what's correct in English. However, 成语 is so special that it has individual chapters for it:

结构上可以分为两个双音节的，中间加连接号。 例如： fēnɡpínɡ-lànɡjìnɡ（风平浪静） àizēnɡ-fēnmínɡ（爱憎分明） shuǐdào-qúchénɡ（水到渠成）
yánɡyánɡ-dàɡuān（洋洋大观） pínɡfēn-qiūsè（平分秋色） ɡuānɡmínɡ-lěiluò（光明磊落）
diānsān-dǎosì（颠三倒四）
结构上不能分为两个双音节的，全部连写。 例如： cénɡchūbùqiónɡ（层出不穷）
bùyìlèhū（不亦乐乎） zǒnɡ’éryánzhī（总而言之） àimònénɡzhù（爱莫能助） yīyīdàishuǐ（一衣带水）

According to this, we may need to add hyphens inbetween 徐娘半老 and 杞人忧天 when they are written as pinyin.
Then it also says this about property nouns:

专有名词成分与普通名词成分连写在一起的，是一般语词或视为视为一般语词的，首字母小写。 例如： ɡuǎnɡɡān（广柑） jīnɡjù（京剧）
ējiāo（阿胶） zhōnɡshānfú（中山服） chuānxiōnɡ（川芎） zànɡqīnɡɡuǒ（藏青果）
zhāoqín-mùchǔ（朝秦暮楚） qiánlǘzhījì（黔驴之技）

If the text is confusing you, you can look at the last two examples. When a property noun is part of a 成语, it doesn't need to be capitalized.
But then it also has this to say about 成语:

辞书注音需要显示成语及其他词语内部结构时，可按词或语素分写。 例如： chīrén shuō mènɡ（痴人说梦） wèi yǔ
chóumóu（未雨绸缪） shǒu kǒu rú pínɡ（守口如瓶） Hēnɡ-Hā èr jiànɡ（哼哈二将）

This is a suggestion specific to dictionaries, you separate them and properly capitalize the property nouns, in order to display the internal structure of a 成语.
So to answer your question: If you aren't writing a dictionary, you should do this:

徐娘半老 xúniáng-bànlǎo
杞人忧天 qǐrén-yōutiān

Long long ago when I was learning pinyin, none of teachers taught us write any capitalization pinyin.

And pinyin is used to mark the pronunciation of Chinese words , and after you graduated from primary school, you won't use pinyin no longer.

So , my opinion is that, any pinyin is lower-case and each of them should be separated by space like:

  徐娘半老 "xú niáng bàn lǎo"
  杞人忧天 "qǐ rén yōu tiān"

Just remeber , pinyin mustn't be used in formal condition.


Difference between 喜乐 and 快乐？ Dictionaries lead me to understand 快乐 as happy. Whereas 喜乐 as delighted, happiness, joy. In English joy denotes a stronger, deeper emotion. Is the difference in meanings of 快乐 and 喜乐 great enough to express the same contrast?

I think what you mean is 喜悦 not 喜乐 though 乐 can also be pronounced as yuè . This is how I differentiate the two:

喜悦(xǐ yuè) is a passionate feeling of joy. This is usually
expressed in the form of a smile.
快乐(kuài lè) is a pleasant emotional response due to an external
stimuli. This is usually expressed in the form of laughter.

快乐 is more obvious than 喜悦.

乐 of "快乐" : [1]:乐<- - - [1a]: It's a simplfied Chinese writing;   while
樂 < - - - [1b]: this one Traditional Chinese writing.

[2]: the vey oiginal meaning of 樂  ::   total of 樂  made of 3 patrs / components:
[2a]:  2 "ㄠ" : these 2 ㄠ = 系 ::   窗簾的 蕾絲 = 窗帘的蕾丝 = Lace;   the lowest-portiong of curtains. so. it's image/graph similar to "sum of strings".

[2b]: 白 : it's an image/graph  the same as your 1st finge: thumb.= 拇指

[2c]: lowest paotion: 木.   indicate a wood-made musical instrument.

[3]:  violin = 弦琴, 弧琴:  these musical instrument played by human-being's THUMB.

[4]: [1a+1c] = [ strings + wood ] = violin, or any Chinese 弦琴, 弧琴

[5]: { [1b]= THUMB ) + [4] } = when during human play music. they feel "HAPPY".

[6]: finally, 樂 = happhy.

to learn Chinese, when you see "simplified 乐" you can not link into [5];
you have to learn 樂 this taditional Chinese writing to get the image:
human play music , then get the feeling : HAPPY.


Why 纹 is the wrong character to write for tattoo? I've only ever known tattoo (wénshēn) to be written as 纹身.
I was reading an article from 凤凰财经 yesterday called 猪躺着也能挣：一张纹身猪皮值百万.
What struck me, though, were all the comments on the article saying things like:

错别字，不是这个纹，小便没好好读书

and

文身的文写错了！！好么！！！！

Looking through ABC, Zhongshan Medical and even the Grande Ricci they all have:

纹身〔紋/--〕
wénshēn
tattoo / tattooing (MeSH) / Tatouer

(respectively).
MoE and 两岸 have entires for 文身 and note:

亦作「刺青」、「紋身」。

There seems to be a pattern here, though. MoE and 两岸 are Taiwan-based; 凤凰 is Hong Kong-based.
So where are the complaints coming from?
Let's have a look at 规范

动 在人体的皮肤上刺上文字或图案。
注意 不宜写作“纹身”。

Oh, there it is. Mainland-based 规范 is not happy with the 绞丝旁 here.
I have my hunches but what's the deal?
Why are some people so insistent that 纹 is wrong?
And who are these people?

They are purists. In the words of Steven Pinker:

  ...also known as sticklers, pedants, peevers, snobs, snoots, nitpickers,
  traditionalists, language police, usage nannies, grammar Nazis, and
  the Gotcha! Gang.

According to this article, 纹身 is accepted by a newer version of 《现代汉语词典》 as an alternative form of 文身.

In traditional Chinese (Taiwan), we always use 紋身, not 文身.

Both 文 and 紋 are nouns in origin, and we verbalize those characters (in Taiwan).

文, in verb, means more like to write (a word); 紋, in verb, means more like to embroider (a pattern).

You could check out the 刺青 in wikipedia.

By the way, 紋身 could be a verb or a noun.

More info:

Due to Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (文化大革命), China had simplified Chinese characters. They use one Chinese character to representative multiple characters. Today, most Chinese doesn't recognize or know the correctly original characters anymore.


As nouns, is there any difference between 变化 and 改变? Although their noun/verb differences have been covered in other posts, is there any specific difference between using them as nouns only?
For example, is there any difference between:

城市已经发生了很大的变化。

城市已经发生了很大的改变。

a. 城市已经发生了很大的变化。
b. 城市已经发生了很大的改变。

Comparing 变化 with 改变 in this context, 改变 connotes 城市 is being changed (say by people) from the past. Well, 变化 connotes that we see or identify some difference from what the city used to be. 改变 describes the action, change.

变化 happens objectively , 改变 happens subjectively (even in your example the object is omitted).


What is the purpose of using 成语接龙 to learn 成语? My son attends Chinese classes and one of the techniques they focus on is teaching the children to learn 成语接龙.

From my observation this allows someone to learn a large number of 成语 as it prompts you with the first character and the brain is quite adaptive in remembering sequences like this. However, what it doesn't seem to allow you to remember is meaning or meaning in context and how the 成语 is used in conversation.

In most cases if you search for 成语接龙 online you will be provided downloaded pages or sets that you can use to learn, but not the meaning of the individual 成语.

In Western countries idioms and sayings are usually learnt from reading, conversation and popular culture.

Is there a difference in the way that 成语 are learnt in Chinese that makes it important to learn in this way? What are the stated aims of using the 成语接龙 technique as I am aware that this also taught in (some) schools in China?

The purpose is to force one to recite idioms without explaining what they mean.

I believe this kind of recitation is a good way to learn language. Recite it first when we are young; ponder about its meaning later when we have a sound background of related skills, such as logic, critical thinking. This belief is well backed by him, who learned English, German, French, Latin and Greek by recitation, allegedly. Recitation is also an important method to learn in classic Chinese schools.

It is just a Game, if you know more of 成语, the 龙 will go on. Actually, we do not use a lot of 成语 in daily life or modern novel.


中国人 vs 华人 which should I use? I think 中国人 only refers to people having Chinese nationality while 华人 can be referred to any Chinese-descent people.

If one person is China-born and has Chinese nationality, should I always use 中国人? Is 华人 less common, or in the worst case, rude?

中国人: usally it refers to people who have PRC nationality. In Mainland China, this may also refer to citizens of Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.
华人: Chinese (race) people with the nationality of another country.
华侨: 中国人 living abroad.
华裔: the decendants of 华人 or 华侨.

中国人you must call zhongguoren ,this is the right one


How to determine if a personal name is feminine or masculine? Sometimes when working with Chinese names it is not evidently clear whether the person in question is male or female.

Besides using pure, fallible, intuition - what other methods are there to tell if a name is feminine or a masculine?

There are no general rules. Here are some rough guidelines:

Some characters are used almost exclusively for one gender. For example, almost any character containing 女 will generally only be found in women's names.
This is particularly true for names like 娟娟, where the 女 radical is part of the meaning. Common characters like 安 or 好 can appear in male names just as easily, despite the fact that they have the 女 radical.

Names that reference flowers, precious stones or beauty, as well as "cute" names are more likely to be women's names. Names that sound grandiose or political are more likely to be men's names. Some characters that strongly point towards a feminine name are 玲 (líng, a word relating to jewelry), 瑩 (yíng, a precious stone), 蓉 (róng, hibiscus flower), as well as 彤 (tóng, red), 美, 麗, 佳, and 艷, all of which mean "beautiful". Conversely, some male-specific characters are 宇 (yú, space), 勇 (brave), 昊 (hào, vast) as well as 囯, 大, 東 and 平.

Once you get used to hearing Chinese men's and women's names, you will become better at guessing which is which. Some sounds and combinations of sounds are more common in one than the other, although that would be too complex to list here.

However, in Chinese there are no formal rules about names, and any family can name their child whatever they like, even if the name does not match the child's gender. So there is no definitive way to identify a person's gender from their name -- not even for Chinese people themselves.

Google those names and see if the text says 他 or 她.


How would you describe the meaning of 弯 wan1? Specifically regarding its use to mean someone who is 'bent'? Someone who likes someone of the same-sex or is at least suspected of it? Does it include bisexuality? Is it polite or rude, subtle or overt? And when did you first start seeing this word?

gay = not straight = 不直 = 弯

I first heard this word a few years ago. It is often used by younger people.  It is a slang and should not be used in any formal situation. Like any slang, it can be rude or not depending on the context.

I do not believe it has any sexual reference though.

It depends on the context, like CEO of Apple Cook admit he is bent in public media, may just state one truth, The word itself doesn't contain nay offensive information.

but if you are angry, and quarrel with someone, then you said the person is bent, then the guy will become crazy, it's really hurt.


How to use 可爱，properly? My understanding of the word is "lovable or cute". Can someone give me the context when it might be appropriate to use this term? For example, lots of folks find kittens lovable or cute. A sample sentence and explanation of when to use the term would help me the most.

There's nothing very special about the usage of 可爱. In Chinese many 'adjectives' are formed from verbs.

E.g.

好吃 ("good to eat") is tasty/delicious or
有趣 ("has interest") is interesting and
难看 ("hard to look at") is ugly.

These are not really adjectives, but their best English counterparts are adjectives, so you can think of them as 'adjectives'.

Similarly,

可爱 ("can be loved") is cute/lovely.

You can use 可爱 to describe people, especially children, or animals, and even inanimate things.

这只狗很可爱！This dog is very cute! (可爱 is the predicate of the sentence)
可爱的小女孩 cute (little) girl (可爱 is used as an adjective to describe a noun)

In case of animals, you can also use 萌物 ("cute thing") to denote an animal that is just cute, 萌宠 is a cute pet and 卖萌 means "to act cute/behave in a cute way".

这个小孩真可爱。good to describe for a kids.

这个小狗可爱极了。for pets as well.

宝贝，你穿上这件衣服真可爱！usually for a girl.

那小伙蛮可爱的。usually a comment for a feminine guy.


Apple Tablet Dictionary that Supports Drawing Input I am trying to find an Apple tablet dictionary that supports drawing input.

What I mean by that Is that you are able to draw the character you are looking for and then it suggests a number of characters this drawing of yours looks like.

I have noticed that android Pleco has this function but not for Iphone Pleco.

Can anyone point to another app that works for IOS?

This Youtube video shows how to enable iPad's builtin system chinese hand writing keyboards. Once you enable one of them, you can use it not only for Pleco but also for any apps.

The real thing you need is an input method supporting stroke input. A Sogou input method is recommended. You can download it on its website. Use this input method to input the character you have seen, and look it up in any Chinese dictionary app.


Why do we have to say 一百 一千 but not 一十? This has always stumped me as all other base 10 numbers (>10) in Chinese you declare 1 through 9 for the quantity [1] of these units but you only have to declare 2 through 9 for 十 as 1 is implied [2]

So is there reason behind this or just a quirk in the numerical system?

1:

  一百

  一千

  一万

2:

  十六

  二十六

Note:
As @congusbongus has pointed out this is only applicable when talking about 十 through 十九

It's just conventional. Even common Chinese don't know why.

You do can say 16, for example,  一十六 or 十六.  When we emphasizing something, we say 一十六. While in common usage, we say 十六, because it's tired to add a prefix 一. It's redundant.

From google translate or other translate,十 or 一十 both translated into ten。Which will you select as ten?I choose 十，but as others said that "一十" is not  wrong.Maybe it happen to our daily life,we also say "千二" as 1200，"百二" as 120,"十二" as 12；Also we write 十二，but we won't write 千二。You know Oral and written will have a big differnt.


exact meaning of 你自以为的极限只是别人的起点 the translation for this sentence 你自以为的极限只是别人的起点 is "your peak is just the beginning for others". this is about a love story the guy just gave up chasing the girl and the girl said this sentence to him. what i'm confused is does she mean your peak is the begining of other people to court her? or does she mean the guy's peak is suppose to be just the beginning as a reference in courting rituals here in China? so technically is the girl saying you and i dating is just the start you gave up too easily?

"你自以为的极限只是别人的起点"
"The limit you thought you had reached, is just a starting point for some other people."

She was saying the guy gave up too easily.
He thought he had reached the limit of his ability to continue on with this relationship; The woman disagreed, suggesting the level of obstacle this guy facing was no more than a starting point of a challenge in many people's eyes.
A challenge get harder and harder after it started. But the starting point of a challenge is easy--  all you have to do, is to 'decide to take it on.'

This is also the title of a (translated?) book. The english title is "break out"


Where can I find 下江人's article《释四川话 (二)》from《旅行杂志》1945/7/18? 四川方言词源 has the following information under the entry for 搊贺:

又，下江人《释四川话(二)》： “救济□人，或扶助他人成 功，称为‘抽合’。”(《旅行杂志》1945/7/18)此记音。

The article is then referenced again under the entry for 打启发:

又，下江人 《释四川话 (二)》： “打抽丰称 ‘打起发’。” (《旅行杂志》1945/7/18)

CADAL (China Academic Digital Associative Library) has an issue here: 旅行杂志

Which says:

民国三十四年

which apparently works out to:
》
1945
then the next part says:

第十九卷第七期

Vol. 19/NO. 7
but the table of contents also says:

I'm not sure what 四川方言词源's reference of《旅行杂志》1945/7/18 exactly means.
1945 is the year; if 7 is the month that corroborates with the issue on CADAL which says 七月 on the cover.
p. 2 says:

7/31
Does that mean 《旅行杂志》1945/7/18 would be the earlier issue: Vol. 19/No. 6?
but then that article says:

Vol. 19/No. 6
六月三十日

1945 Vol. 19/No. 7 does have an article titled:《释四川话》| the reference in 四川方言词源 says《释四川话 (二)》though - with a #2. I'm struggling to figure this out though.
Any ideas?

another example of a reference from the same book looks like this:

白虹《四川方言 (川行杂记之 六)》： “锅块，烧饼也。” (《自修》 1941/162/24)

'41 is most likely the year
and another:

(中华书局， 1938/182)

The notation system works like:

year/issue/page

Making: 1945/7/18, issue number seven from 1945 page 18.

There are three parts in the one magazine.

Part one can be found on page 8:

Part two is on page 18:

Part three is on page 35:

1945/7/18 is the common format of year/month/day.

But given that the 6th issue is published on 6/30, the 7th issue is more likely to be published on 7/31.

Can you check it again and post the picture with the entry 搊贺?


Are 民谣 Songs? Or are they saying? Recently, I was trying to understanding what 民谣 exactly means. I know that it is often translated as "Folk Rhyme or Ballad". This implies to me that it is an old, traditional song.

I recently saw a sentence, however,  that confused me. It was

"至今南阳仍有“冬至不端饺子碗，冻掉耳朵没人管”的民谣。"

Does this mean that that sentence is part of a song?
What does 民谣 actually mean?

民谣 could be the following things:

民间歌谣 or rhymes of the folks. Chinese 歌谣s don't have to carry tunes, but they usually do rhyme, or at least carry some tonal quality which makes them sound good. They usually carry some sort of folk wisdom. Sometimes they are also called 民谚 or 谚语.
Regional folk songs. They are created and sung by common folks, and they do carry tunes. More often they are called 民歌.
Short for 独立民谣 or Indie Folk, the music genre becoming popular since 1990s. It's probably the most common usage nowadays.

Somewhat related: 儿歌 and 童谣 are 歌谣 for kids, they don't have to carry tunes, either.

As for your example, it's clearly just a saying, not part of a song.

//Folk

Sorry, My english is Not great.

In china, 民谣 is 民歌, ancient folk music.

Such as 安塞腰鼓 (安塞(AnSai) of Drum(chinese)).

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhXQ7-aBUPc

but, the word(民谣), also of the world music(folk).

such as Neofolk(新民谣), Deathfolk(死亡民谣), Apocalyptic Folk(天启民谣), Blackfolk(黑民谣), Popfolk(流行民谣), 弹指唱(playing acoustic guitar of easy melodic)
E.T.C.

www.xiami.com/genre/detail/gid/16

In Young people of chinese, 民谣(Folk),generally for 弹指唱;-)


chinese grammar, 做饺子 or 做饭饺子? 做饺子 and 做饭饺子, second is said grammatically incorrect, by a Chinese person : is that right ? what is the problem with 做饭饺子

wenlin says : 做饭[-飯] zuòfàn* {E} v.o. prepare a meal | Nǐ huì zuòfàn ma? 你会做饭吗? Can you cook ?

The character "饭" itself in the word "做饭" has a literal meaning as "meal". So if you say "做饭饺子", the whole meaning of the sentence would become "prepare 'meal dumplings'", it contains a strange phrase "meal dumplings" (饭饺子) which is not in the regular Chinese vocabulary.

In this sense, "饭" is just a generic character referred to any kind of meal, if you mean to refer to a specific type of food, you should just replace "饭" with that food such as "饺子".

it's just 做饺子 (the 饭 is redundant)

做饺子or 包饺子


Any difference between 早安 and 早上好? Is there any difference in meaning, formality, tone, or otherwise between the "good morning" greetings 早安 and 早上好? Or just regional preferences? (I'm thinking perhaps the former may be more common in Taiwan and the latter more common in Mainland China and/or northern China but I'm not sure.)

From the accepted answer at Baidu:

  Both are words of greeting. Nowadays people generally use “早上好”. “早安”
  will give a feeling of before 民国 (the Republic of China (1912-1949)),
  or a literary feeling (it's common in literature).

Other people think 早安 has a warmer feeling.

Of course this is the perspective of mainland people.

In Taiwan 早安 is used much more than 早上好. （Ratio: 28, Google advanced search: exact phrase, country TW, language zh-TW)

"早安" 5,340,000
"早上好" 192,000

In the mainland, incidentally, 早安 is also used much more than 早上好, although the degree of usage seems much closer. （Ratio: 2.3, Google advanced search: exact phrase, country CN, language zh-CN)

"早安" 24,500,000
"早上好" 10,400,000

早安 is Chinese for the English "good morning" and used in China everywhere.

早上好 is the creation of machine translation of English "good morning" and is probably used by translation machines.

I am a native Chinese speaking person and have travelled all over the world and I have never been greeted by anyone with "早上好".


Understanding how to pronounce the “er” at end of words I know how to pronounce stuff like:

玩儿 : war

哪儿 : nar

男孩儿: nan har

But I recently came across 小偷儿. How would you pronounce that? Would it just sound like “xiao tour” like the English word “tour”?

First off, Forvo actually has a recording of 小偷儿 that you can go and listen to.

There are two kinds of erhua that you'll come across. One I like to call an integrated erhua, in the South this is the only kind of erhua you will find; so taking 偷儿 for instance it would become something like tēr ([t‘ər] or more accurately [t‘ɚ]). In southern areas the erhua always becomes an integrated ɚ.

In the North, though, you'll often hear what I like to call an affixed erhua. Again, taking 偷儿 for instance MSM pinyin matches it quite well: tou'r ([t‘ou̯˞]). Like a little r plopped on right at the end hanging out in the depths of your throat. You'll hear words like 牛儿、瓶儿、空儿 that sound like the erhua is just trailing there on the end.

I find the southern pronunciations much easier to learn for foreigners but there's something enchanting about that Northern trailing "er".

It's not like tour. Tour is pronounced as u r, like the sound of sure. Actually, it's pronounced as the letter O + r sound with the first tone.


Learn to type in Pinyin for a Zhuyin user After years of frustration about not being able to distinguish ㄥ ㄣ, and nearly no improvements on iOS Zhuyin keyboard layout. I decided to switch to Pinyin for both mobile usage and daily desktop (I am a Mac user). What's your suggested ways of learning and your experience?

There is an (almost) one-to-one mapping from Zhuyin to Pinyin, replacing symbols with letters. In my humble opinion, Pinyin only save one from remembering symbols.
Neither Pinyin nor Zhuyin is perfect. Better learn both of them.

Pinyin is the result of an attempt of romanization, everything is going well except that, after all, Chinese language is quite different from Latin family languages in many aspects, spelling, pronunciation, logic, or the way of thinking, so a perfectly matched mapping can be really hard to realize, if not impossible. So it's not surprising when the Pinyin transliteration is found to be a little strange to English pronunciation rules, e.g. in qi vs. chee, or gu vs. koo. A more intuitive transliteration is Wade-Giles. As a citizen of China, one had better learn and use Pinyin as Pinyin simplifies and boosts the learning or the input in digital devices in many situations. Chinese romanization is still in progress, and we all might contribute to it. Personally speaking, it is quite controversial to put Pinyin into the position of official representation of Chinese language pronunciation, say, for the lacking of cultural heritage, abrupt as a centaur. When it comes to input method, I prefer the faster heuristic Pinyin (such as Google's, QQ's and Sogou's) than Zhuyin.

Zhuyin, based on a system invented by the late philosopher 章太炎 in 1910's. Zhuyin symbols presents a concise representation, which implies a simplification of pronunciation patterns, in other words, a standardized Mandarin would prevail and dialects or variations had to fend for themselves. Zhuyin is still officially in use among Taiwanese people, some of which feel it hard to move to Pinyin, for many reasons, such as personal habit or belief. Say it practically, Zhuyin has some advantage: some vowel Zhuyin symbols may give less keyboard hits than Pinyin, e.g. ㄠ (L) vs. ao (AO).

Being a Chinese in mainland, I never learnt ZhuYin.
I learn PinYin at my primary school.

But my mama learnt ZhuYin(60 years ago).
And I remember that my old Chinese dictionary has both ZhuYin and PinYin.


What phrases in Cantonese are thought to be colloquial but are actually used in Mandarin? I only learnt HK Cantonese from my mother, and did not have the environment to speak or use it otherwise.  She would tell me that certain Cantonese words are only spoken colloquially, but would not be expressed in written form.

For example:

食饭 is spoken and should be written as 吃饭
斟茶 is spoken and should be written as 倒茶
唔该 is spoken and should be written as 谢谢

However recently, I have encountered people from China using the phrase
 斟茶 in Mandarin, and I was told upon asking that this usage is normal.

So, I was wondering there are any other colloquial cantonese phrases that are actually used by the Mandarin speaking population.

Added 20180308: just heard 我对不住你 in a period China drama, which I would say 我对不起你 in Mandarin or  我對唔住你 in Cantonese.  What is used in China these days?

唔該 has two meanings:

"Please" as in 請 (e.g 唔該你幫我開門 -> 請你幫我開門 -> "Would you please open the door for me?")
"Thank you" as in 謝謝 (e.g 唔該晒 -> 謝謝 -> "Thanks so much!")

Other terms are colloquial in Cantonese I can think of off the top of my head:

發夢 is written as 做夢 (dreaming)
老闆/老板 (interchangeable, means boss/owner) is usually written as 上司 (boss) and/or 東主/店主 (owner, usually referring to small business owners), though 老闆/老板 is also in use in Mandarin/written Chinese
行街 is normally written as 逛街 (literally means walking on the streets, usually means shopping)
餸 is normally written as 菜 (means cooking ingredients/cooked dishes here, not vegetables) e.g. 買餸 is 買菜 in Mandarin (grocery shopping), 煮餸 is 做菜 (cooking), 隔夜餸 is 剩菜 (leftovers)
餐牌 (dining menu) is normally written as 菜單
Umbrella is called 遮 in Cantonese, but written as 傘
Jacket/coat is generally called 䄛 in Cantonese, but usually called 衣 in Mandarin

䄛/大䄛 is 大衣/外衣 (outer jacket/coat)
雨䄛 is 雨衣 (raincoat)
皮䄛 is 皮夾克 (leather jacket)

衫 means tops in Cantonese but also used as the general term for clothes, whereas 上衣 is normally used for tops in Mandarin, and the general term for clothes is 衣服
波 is in general written as 球 (e.g. 乒乓波 -> ping pong/table tennis)

In particular, most ball-type of sports use 球 in the name of the sport in Cantonese, such as 足球 (football/soccer) and 網球 (tennis), the act of playing them still use 波: 踢波 (play soccer, literally translates to "kick ball"), 打波 (play ball, the specific type is generally inferred in the context).  In Mandarin, these would normally be 踢球 and 打球.
日 is almost exclusively used in Cantonese when referring to "day", whereas in Mandarin/written Chinese 天 and 日 are used more interchangeably:

今日 (today) -> 今天
尋日 (yesterday) -> 昨天
聽日 (tomorrow) -> 明天
前日 (the day before yesterday) -> 前天
後日 (the day after tomorrow) -> 後天
大前日 (the day before the day before yesterday, i.e. three days ago) -> 大前天
大後日 (the day after the day after tomorrow, i.e. three days later) -> 大後天

There are also many newer terms and names (from the last 100 years or so) where the Cantonese name is phonetically adopted from a foreign language (normally English), or even left as English in Cantonese, but the Mandarin term is either adopted from meaning, adopted phonetically differently due to differences in pronunciations.  For example:

cab/taxi is 的士 in Cantonese, 出租車 (Mainland China) or 計程車 (Taiwan) in Mandarin
bus is 巴士 in Cantonese, 公車 in Mandarin
wrench is 士巴拿 (from British English "spanner") in Cantonese, 扳手 in Mandarin
tie (as in necktie) is usually called 呔 or 領呔 in Cantonese, 領帶 in Mandarin
tire/tyre (as in car tires) is called 呔 (yes, same as above) or 車呔 in Cantonese, 胎/車胎/輪胎 in Mandarin

Actually,斟茶 is special phrases in these example.It's often used in formal place.so, it's okay as well as more polite.And, yes,we use a slight another account in daily talk.


Difference between 决策 and 决定 I'm trying to understand the difference between 决策 and 决定. It seems like 决策 is used more formally and in the case of business contexts more (e.g. 战略决策 - strategic decision)。 But, I wasn't sure if that was entirely rue.

For example, could I say 在京东所有重要的决策由刘强东拍板

or should I say 决定？

Thanks for your help!

决策is a noun and can only be used as a noun
for example 这是一个非常重要的决策。this is a very important decision.
决定 is a verb but also a noun
verb example 你要决定你想去哪。you need to decide where you want to go
noun example 这是老板的决定，不是我的。this is the boss's decision, not mine.
hope this helps.
P.S. I am Chinese.

決策 is strategy, a noun.

http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/cbdic/gsweb.cgi?o=dcbdic&searchid=Z00000097229

決定 is "to determine", roughly used as a verb:

http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/cbdic/gsweb.cgi?o=dcbdic&searchid=Z00000097201

by the way, 决 (u+51b3) is, well, not ...
it should be 決 (u+6c7a), have a look of this page:

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

it states clearly: 決﹒行流也﹒从水从夬

三點﹒部首「水」也﹒兩點﹒部首「冫」也, get it :)


What does 都是套路 mean? I had a friend type it out, but Google translate said it meant "Routine", and she insisted that's not what it means.

Apparently it's slang?

Has anybody heard this before, and know what it translates into?

Literally, "it's all routine", which is now used online to mean "act according to scripts, not from heart". That is, you mindlessly follow what a book or someone else tells you to do, step by step, without any thinking from yourself.

I believe it originated from the routines to date girls. (I made this up) 1. get her out, 2. pick a restaurant that is quiet and posh, 3. "carelessly" drop something on the ground so you can touch her hand, etc, which eventually leads to get her to bed. So guys follow this routine mindlessly and girls recognise his behaviour "is all routine (to get me to bed)", not to start a serious relation.

Common tricks or old tricks.
I think your Chinese friend probably means "you're just kidding me".


What about the orthography of 苹 (like in 苹果)? It seems consensus is missing I recently came across an anomaly in Chinese orthography which I can't explain myself. Please take a look at the following picture (screenshot from the Duolingo course on Chinese, I guess in lecture "Hobbies 2" but I am unsure about that)

and at the YellowBridge site. What you see is that there is consensus missing in the orthography of 苹 (within Duolingo's writing, the writing of the Windows typesetting system, and the writing YellowBridge proposes as a stroke order diagram). The difference lies in the two diagonal strokes in the middle of the character. Sometimes they are written from top to bottom, sometimes from bottom to top.
At first, I thought these must be two different characters with the same pronunciation "píng". But I found out to the better that they ought to be the same.
If I were to make a question out of this report, I would ask: Why is this? What should I think about this, and how should I write? When you write by hand, what orthography do you usually use? What do other people think about this anomaly? Do they understand both writings? Are they both likely common, and both generally equally understood/accepted?

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

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

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

苹 is the only right writing in Mandarin.