Mandarin is a group of Chinese dialects that use as standard pronunciation the dialect of Beijing.
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61 views
Politeness in Mandarin
I like to say please sometimes when I want to be polite to someone when asking them for something. Is this customary in Mandarin?
For example, if I wanted to ask for some water, I might ask my ...
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0answers
45 views
How to made a good poems in chinese? [closed]
Exactly, i was thinking. How can people in history just randomly merge up several word. It can be a good wellknown poem? Then why now persons can't made it?
Also, i found out a thing. If a person in ...
3
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2answers
197 views
What is the correct pronunciation of 垃圾?
The word 垃圾 is sometimes pronounced laji, but other times I've seen it pronounced as lese, which pronunciation is deemed to be more correct? Are they both interchangeable?
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3answers
241 views
Why do native speakers often say a character has “no meaning”?
Many times I will know all the characters in a name but one & I'll ask what that one character means. 9 times out of 10 the response is, "That character has no meaning".
While it might be true ...
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1answer
112 views
How would you translate 细腻 into English?
My Chinese coworkers were describing Korean drama TV shows & said that the actors faces are "细腻" xi4ni4. When I look this up in my dictionary, I get 2 definitions "fine & smooth" or ...
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3answers
216 views
What's the main difference between 为 and 是?
It seems like both 为 and 是 mean "to be". In which cases is one used but not the other? Is it something like the difference between "estar" and "ser" in Spanish and Portuguese? (In the sense that one ...
2
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1answer
240 views
The origin of 鸡贼
I speak Mandarin Chinese, but it is the first time that I stumbled upon the word 鸡贼. According to 百度百科 (Baidu wiki), it means being stingy. The wiki page also says that it comes from the Beijing ...
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2answers
151 views
Advice on Mandarin Chinese passive learning
What are the best Chinese online tv channels with english subtitles for passive Mandarin learning. I find Chinese a rather musical language and would love to watch subbed tv (news, documentaries, ...
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4answers
202 views
Expressing “Fair enough”
The English expression "fair enough" can be used to concede a point in an argument, or acknowledge the other person's position, without expressing complete agreement. To take an example from ...
4
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1answer
76 views
Difference between 更好 and 比较好?
I'm confused about the difference between 更好 and 比较好. Since both seem to mean "better", how are these used differently? In what cases would you use them?
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4answers
321 views
Writing Chinese Characters is Sloppy
Since learning Mandarin through Rosetta Stone, Youtube videos, and friends, I've begun to keep a journal of mandarin characters and phrases.
I first draw the character, along with the pinyin and ...
6
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2answers
131 views
How does foreign word transliteration work in the context of Cantonese vs Mandarin?
If I understand correctly, Cantonese sounds very different from Mandarin, despite being written in the same way (omitting some small differences, which are irrelevant for the question).
If it is the ...
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2answers
199 views
Errors and Unnatural Language in a Translation Challenge
I was recently challenged to translate the following sentence from English into Chinese:
You should stay away from that bar. A friend of mine went there before, and he ended up in the hospital after ...
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1answer
183 views
Poetic two-character words of the form: Verb + Natural Noun?
I was looking for examples in Mandarin of poetic two-character words. What words have the following form...
Verb + Noun
...where the noun is something that occurs in nature?
The first examples ...
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2answers
302 views
Benefits of Learning a Chinese Dialect in Addition to Standardized Mandarin
Edit: This is now cross-posted to linguistics.
Studies have shown that learning more than one language helps people of all ages learn each one of the languages. For a nice mainstream media piece on ...
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1answer
128 views
9 Questions from the movie Red Sorghum (红高粱)
My friend bought me a set of four Zhang Yi Mou movies. I watched Red Sorghum (红高粱) today, and there were a few sentences which, after looking up the meanings, I still couldn't quite understand. I'll ...
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4answers
162 views
For all I know
There is an expression in English:
"For all I know, ...."
The following clause often has a modal expressing uncertainty or the hypothetical nature of the assertion, like "might", "may", "could", ...
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3answers
166 views
How to add emphasis to sentences
Last week a kid wrote on the office white board "Give me all your cheese now!" and I attempted a translation into Chinese (mostly to practice my handwriting). I wrote 马上给我你的奶酪。 I felt like this ...
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2answers
236 views
Academic explanation for rhyming fillers with irrelevant meaning in doggerel
在打油诗、顺口溜、儿歌里经常有纯粹是为了押韵或节拍而插入的和文意无关的词汇。在北方话、传统北京/天津评书相声里尤甚。我想知道在语言学专业里这种情况是怎么解释的，有没有术语或相关资料。
例如北京顺口溜：
嗝屁着凉大海棠，脚不丫子蘸白糖。
里“大海棠”完全是为押韵，无意义；蘸白糖虽然略有意义，但选词十分随机，更多是为了一种插科打诨的效果。
Brief translation:
...
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7answers
185 views
Learning/remembering Chinese
I lived in China for a few months and picked up quite a bit of Mandarin. Now that I've moved back to the US, I have forgotten the Chinese I knew and spoke while there. Other than actually living where ...
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5answers
294 views
Translation for “sorry” as in “I am sorry to hear that”?
In English we can say "sorry" as an abbreviation for "I am sorry to hear that"/"I feel sorry for you" to express sympathy. Is there a Chinese word or phrase that bears the same meaning?
I know one ...
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2answers
170 views
Taiwanese Mandarin vs Mainland Mandarin [closed]
A reference request.
Is there any good source of the differences word choice/meaning between Taiwan and Mainland Chinese?
Not asking about Chinese Characters, but usage.
Spain have different ...
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5answers
579 views
Origin of 呆在 vs 待在
Both 呆在 and 待在 are acceptable ways of writing dai1 zai4 meaning "stay at/in". For instance, a couple sentences from iciba:
我们因天气寒冷呆在家里。 Because of the cold weather, we stayed at home.
...
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2answers
142 views
Ordering food from a menu in a restaurant
How should I order food from a menu in a restaurant?
In English I'd usually say something like 'I'll have the beef' or 'one of these and two of those' while pointing.
In the past in China I have ...
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2answers
169 views
What effective methods exists for visual learners to get Chinese grammar?
I want to learn Chinese grammar (e.g. sentence structure), however, I am a highly visual person and feel a visual learning process would help me the most.
I have already taken a beginner Chinese ...
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votes
2answers
214 views
留学: Why the use of “留”?
I'm sure like many students of Chinese, my first encounter with the character 留 was in the word 留学, meaning "to study abroad".
Some time later I encountered 留 as an independent word, meaning "to ...
2
votes
2answers
201 views
Language Learning Software That Teaches Mechanics (Not Phrases)
I've tried out various language learning software (Rosetta Stone, Tell Me More, Transparent), and I've been severely disappointed by the fact that not one of them actually teaches you the LANGUAGE, ...
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3answers
228 views
国家 vs. 国, when can 国 be used alone?
In the Chinese book for beginners by Bellassen, it is stated that 国 cannot be used alone: it doesn't have a meaning on its own, and thus the word country/fatherland is 国家 and not 国.
However... I am ...
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4answers
543 views
How to pronounce “下载”
How to pronounce the word "下载", "xià zǎi" or "xià zài"？
Most Chinese people pronounce it "xià zǎi", but there are some people insist on pronouncing it "xià zài". There are different also different ...
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4answers
223 views
That mystical 就 again
Here is a sentence:
厨房壁炉架上的那面镜子就把哈利吓了一跳
Below are my translation variants. Bold letters should be a 'jiu' english analog here.
The mirror on top of the kitchen's fireplace scared Harry the ...
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votes
4answers
270 views
Learning Traditional first with the goal of learning both
I found this in the Mandarin wikibook:
"It is considered easier for people who learn Traditional to read both sets than people who learn Simplified only, but Simplified characters are less ...
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votes
1answer
123 views
Tone of 竟 and 境 in Mandarin and Cantonese
竟 and 境 are both read ging2 in Cantonese, which usually corresponds to a third tone syllable in Mandarin (as is the case for 警, which is ging2 in Cantonese and jing3 in Mandarin).
However, both of ...
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1answer
159 views
How to ask someone to take a photo?
Recently on vacation I wanted to ask a Chinese tourist if they would mind taking a photo of my wife and I - but I didn't know how, so just asked 你可以吗? (nǐ kěyǐ ma?) while pointing to my camera.
How ...
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5answers
197 views
What was this online dictionary's name with ancient traditional and simplified characters and etymology?
I once found a Mandarin Chinese dictionary which for each character listed the ancient, the traditional and the simplified Chinese characters. For each it described its meaning and how it developed ...
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1answer
116 views
Expressions that have no meaning (什么/来着）
I know that these two expression, in certain circumstances, have no meaning and are optional. I'm trying to figure out how to use them, even though they have no meaning.
什么
This has a meaning, ...
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1answer
71 views
Usage of 感动 (active/passive?)
According to mdbg.net 感动 means both 'to move (emotionally)' and 'moving'.
But from what I understand from some texts I have '邻居们都很感动' implying a more passive meaning for 感动.
Can someone shed some ...
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1answer
103 views
(Literally) Seeing Through Things
Earlier today, I ended up in a discussion which somehow involved people who were (literally) transparent. I was somewhat at a loss for how to say "Can you see through him?".
After some research, I've ...
5
votes
1answer
96 views
Correct usage for 跟。。。过不去
This question has two parts:
What's the precise meaning of this expression?
What is the correct usage?
Question (1) I understand it to mean that the person referred to (eg, 跟她过不去) is uncomfortable ...
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votes
4answers
199 views
Pronunciation of 那个
I'm surprised this question hasn't been asked yet!
The pinyin for 那个 is nà gè, but in conversation, Chinese people often pronounce it more like nee-guh than nah-guh. I asked my teacher and she says ...
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3answers
299 views
Is it common to refer to cousins as “cousin-brothers”?
Most Chinese people I know don't have siblings. They refer to their cousin as "cousin brother / sister".
Is this common?
If so, is this a modern change, perhaps reflecting the one-child policy?
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2answers
309 views
What font size for reading simplified characters on screen?
I realize this sounds like a very subjective question, so I will try to ask it very carefully:
I'm learning to speak, read, and write Mandarin. A lot of times (particularly on the web or in e-mail) I ...
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4answers
127 views
Does 上嗨 work as a pun for 上海?
While riding the subway in Shanghai last week, I glanced at the TV playing some commercials and saw what looked like a slightly off spelling of the city's name (上海). I could not get a very good look ...
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1answer
168 views
The development of rhotic vowels in Mandarin
Schuessler's reconstruction of the Old Chinese reading of 二 is *ńźi. It seems there is a correspondence between OC syllables beginning in *ń or *ńź and Mandarin syllables romanised as er.
However, ...
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2answers
189 views
The use of 上 (shàng) “on/above/over” in Mandarin and English
I'm interested in the the differences between English and Mandarin when they are talking about spatial preposition.
Can i assume that in Mandarin, they use the preposition 上 for most of the times ...
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2answers
215 views
Are there differences in writing between Chinese languages, such as Mandarin and Shanghainese
There are already many questions about the different spoken languages that can be called Chinese. This question on the other hand asks about the written one(s?).
Well, to start, is the written ...
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1answer
105 views
What is an appropriate translations of “That's so Raven!”?
The phrase in the title comes from a Disney show, That's so Raven. But in my house, we have been confused on the proper way of translating this.
now we are saying "这是大Raven!" with extra emphasis on ...
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2answers
266 views
How to differentiate moods, characters, temperaments, etc?
It seems like there are way more words for these things than in English, and I am having a hard time figuring out the difference between them. Some adjectives can only be used to describe mood, while ...
3
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5answers
222 views
What does “整块的时间” mean?
I have a sentence in my textbook I've mostly translated, but I can't piece this part together.
"交通不是很便利不说，还需要整块的时间"
Google translate spits out:
"Traffic is not very convenient, you also need the ...
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4answers
202 views
How to pronounce 儿 in conjunction with other characters
The textbook I'm reading now has liberal sprinklings of the 儿 character suffixing words that I have not previously seen suffixed.
For example: 空儿。
How should this be pronounced? Are there any rules ...
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3answers
109 views
How to correctly order the words in this sentence?
This is a question from an exercise book that I'm currently working through, to rearrange the given words into the correct order. I believe the format is along the lines of "The person who was [doing ...
