Questions tagged [expressions]
Questions about more or less fixed expressions.
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More logical expressions of "爸爸把你生下来"
I get stuck by the "生" in expressions like these two:
闺女，爸爸把你生下来，却有很多的无奈
世界上有爸爸生孩子的吗？还真有！
More examples like the first one can be found here:
为何大多数爸爸想生儿子
准爸爸怎么样可以生男孩
Can a father 生 a ...
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How does one express "truthfully", like at the beginning of a sentence in chinese?
In english I would use "actually", 其实，but the particular thing I am trying to convey is that previously, I gave information that was incorrect, but now I am correcting that information.
“I ...
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The mysterious role of 占 in 对占人口绝大多数的民众来说，还是觉得有钱应该省着花
I know that 占 means "to occupy/to take up".
But in this following sentence, I can not figure out what it adds to the meaning as a whole:
"对占人口绝大多数的民众来说，还是觉得有钱应该省着花"
If I take "zhan" away, would ...
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What is the difference between 把握and 掌握in Chinese
In college we were asked that questions and I couldn't get any answers till now
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Understanding 有上月了
I came across the following passage in a Taiwanese short story titled 水鬼學校和失去媽媽的水獺.
「哪時可以參觀池塘？」
「胖大媽，不急呢！」我們扛起水缸離去，說：「現在是戒嚴時期，學校遭小偷了，我們得先抓到賊呢！」
這事情有上月了，只是這三天很嚴重。
I’m having trouble understanding how ...
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Translation English Expression "You can tell ... by ...."
I'm translating an English song in an exercise to learn Chinese
One of the lyrics is
You can tell he means it by the look on his face
This is English expression. A less expressive lyricist might say:...
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感同身受 English equivalent
As the question says, Im wondering if this 成語 has an English version.
The best I could come up with is "I feel you" in English, but I feel the Chinese version has a deeper meaning. Any ...
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"Set the priority straight" in Chinese?
What is Chinese for "Set the priority straight" ?
Or is there any Chinese fable or ancient story that relates to the idea of setting the priority straight?
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The meaning of 打 in 邊個打邊個
In Cantonese, 唔知邊個打邊個 means "don't know (confused) who is who"
The verb 打 (hit; attack) here seemingly occupy the position of 'is' in this phrase
But the meaning of 'is' is not included in ...
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What is the translation of "objet trouvé" into Chinese?
What is the standard translation of "objet trouvé" or "found object" into Chinese? I am looking for an authoritative translation based on some Chinese reference work in art history ...
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Does Chinese have an adage saying “It is better to hit to kill than to hit and injure”?
In "Driven to Kill - Why drivers in China intentionally kill the pedestrians they hit", it's claimed that there's an adage in Chinese of “It is better to hit to kill than to hit and injure.”
Does ...
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十万八千里 meaning great distance?
In Chinese, 十萬八千里; 十万八千里; shí wàn bā qiān lǐ, 108,000 li, means a great distance. Does anyone knows why they chose 108,000? Is there a poem or historical reason behind this number?
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How would I say "change the laundry"?
I use the phrase "change the laundry" to mean "move the laundry from the washing machine to the dryer." I would like to know how to say this in Chinese.
I checked Pleco, and found ...
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Slogan 社会……方何 on a Maoist poster
What is the slogan, mostly obscured by the typist, on the poster that hangs behind him, on this poster from 1956?
Since the artist chose to obscure the poster, it must have been easily recognizable at ...
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Why is 我的朋友今年住在美国 translated to both "my friend [is living in / lived in] America this year"?
Here I am trying to translate two different English sentences to Chinese.
"My friend is living in America this year."
He is still living in America at the point of stating this fact.
Translation :...
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How should I parse "有过之而无不及"?
Chinese-study newbie here! I recently saw the idiom "有过之而无不及," which the online dictionary translates as "to not be inferior in any aspect." I understand this on an idiomatic level,...
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How do I express "I don’t envy you" properly in Chinese?
It's basically translated to
我不羡慕你。
My Chinese colleague has a difficult task, and maybe have to work overtime. When I consoled him,
我不羡慕你 (I don’t envy you)。
He asked back,
为什么要羡慕我？
I realized ...
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What is the translation for 以后还得了?
So I came across seeing this post and I find that I can't translate "以后还得了" to English.
But based on my knowledge, this post is saying that her daughter would be very clever if she knows how ...
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你好啊？ or 你好吗？ Which is more common?
I have recently come across the phrase 你好啊 and I was curious about its usage. It was in the FSI Chinese course with a meaning of 'How are you?', but I have only heard 你好吗 on other courses and when ...
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Understand 憎人富貴厭人貧(窮)
The Cantonese expression 憎人富貴厭人貧/窮 (hate the rich, discriminate the poor) illustrated a mentality that is considered unhealthy. I am trying to find a simple description of this attitude
I came up with
...
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Is the construction 连A带B meaning "both A and B" a general construction or limited to fixed expressions?
The Pleco dictionary mentions the construction 连A带B meaning "both A and B" in the definition of 连, but I can't find any other discussion of this structure.
I see it in fixed expressions like ...
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Is the term 有色人种 ("colored races") normally used by Chinese people?
和奥巴马一起帮民主党候选人拉票的还有佐治亚州前州长候选人艾布拉姆斯。拜登能在此次大选中让佐治亚州“翻蓝”，艾布拉姆斯功不可没。她在2018年的州长选举中惜败，之后一直在佐治亚州多个地方组织动员新选民，特别是鼓励有色人种选民投票。此外，拜登表示他将参与佐治亚州参议员的竞选活动，但没有指明具体时间。
美两党为控制参议院再战佐治亚，2020年12月07日
I was reading the ...
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What 'nostril's hair move' have to do with fear? (嚇到鼻哥窿都冇肉)
嚇到鼻哥窿都冇肉 literally means 'Scared to the point of even nostrils have no flesh'
I was wondering what 'nostrils have no flesh' have to do with fear, so I did some search and found the following article:
...
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What is 輸打贏要? (Cantonese expression)
In this puzzle game I included a Cantonese expression 輸打贏要. and explained it as 'Very bad sportsmanship'
A user asked what it means in the comment section. I replied he can Google it, but the result ...
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Take away (when ordering food): is it 带走 or 打包?
I was told that when you are ordering food you can say either 带走 or 打包.
However, when you are not ordering food and you mean "take this away", then you use 拿走。
Is there a difference in context or ...
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Is there an expression similar to the English "gut feeling" in Chinese?
Is there a metaphor or idiom that has a similar meaning to "gut feeling", as a metaphor for "intuition" or "instinctive feeling", in Mandarin Chinese?
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Is it okay to ask 你的电话号码是什么?
Is it ok to ask:
你的电话号码是什么? (What is your telephone number)
Or do I have to say:
你的电话号码是多少? which is the translation on Duolingo.
Also, can I just say:
"你的电话是多少?
because 电话 already means ...
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Meaning of 这么多好吃
I want to get the correct meaning of this sentence:
我恨不得一下子把这么多好吃的都吃完。
I understand this sentence as "I wish to eat up all those delicious things, all at once". I don't fully understand the ...
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What is the Chinese equivalent of "time to [A]"?
In English, we have a "time to [A]" phrase that indicates something like "now is the appropriate moment to [A]" or "now is the moment at which [A] will happen".
Examples ...
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Which website/service can give good example sentences in Chinese? [duplicate]
Often when learning new words, I want to see them in context. It helps my learning process, and understanding how to properly use new vocab makes it stick in my mind that much more.
Does anyone have ...
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Adj. + 到 to express an extent
I've just stumbled across this sentence:
"吃土" 表示自己没有钱了，很穷，穷到只能吃土的状态了
I'm interested in 穷到只能吃土的状态了. It means "so poor that they can only eat soil". But it seems that adjective + 到 ...
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Can someone please explain this: 都没吃饭吗
I was watching a drama and in the scene, the coach was speaking to her team:
Coach: 希望每个队员都能拿出最好的状态。能不能做到 (I know all of you can do your best。 Can you do that?)
Team: 能！(Yes!)
Coach: 都没吃饭吗 (Not loud ...
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How should I say "I feel very good/I'm very fine" in response to 你好吗?
I've read that when asked the simple question 你好吗? ("How are you?"), answering 我很好 is the standard form, while 我好 is simply not used.
很 means "very", but 我很好 is simply translated as "I'm fine." and ...
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How to say "head" and "tails" when flipping a coin?
While talking about probability with mainland Chinese students I asked what they say for heads and tails of a Chinese coin. I was tossing a one Yuan coin, and they decided I could say in English "...
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Meaning of the expression 黄毛小儿
Is 黄毛小儿 a sort of idiomatic phrase? Literally it would mean a "yellow haired child."
I saw it on a TV drama, but from the child in question was definitely not yellow haired. Since the speaker was ...
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How to express "have fun!" or "enjoy!" in Chinese?
In English, when a friend is doing some activity, we typically say to him/her:
Have fun!
or
Enjoy!
How can we say this in a idiomatic way in Mandarin Chinese?
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What are the repeatedly used structures in 4-character expressions (e.g. chengyu) and what do they mean?
In today's reading, I encountered the expression 敬而远之. However, I noticed this x而y之 structure is repeated in many other 4-character expressions (Pleco search ?而?之):
敬而远之
大而化之
等而下之
分而治之
换而言之
久而久之
取而代之
...
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What is the meaning of 臭石头 (slang)?
I remember that my dad used this occasionally when he was arguing with my mom. Google translate just returns smelly rock, but I know it's gotta be some sort of slang, as whenever my dad said it, my ...
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“你我未来，由此展开。” Is this a real Chinese expression?
Is this an authentic Chinese expression? If it is, then why is the only place I see it in use on the Chinese-language version of the US Census website?
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How and when to use 不见不错 vs. 不见不散?
Could someone please explain me how and when to use these expressions? Is there any difference between the two of them? Is it something like "see you later/see you there/see you soon"?
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How old is the expression “老百姓”？
I have searched on line text bases, especially for 三国志 since the 2010 television version of that is what made me wonder. But I do not seem to get reliable results that way. Perhaps if I understood the ...
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How should one translate "祝你年年有今日，歲歲有今朝" into English?
On my birthday a friend wished me "祝你年年有今日，歲歲有今朝". I can understand each of the individual words in this phrase, but the overall meaning is somewhat less clear to me (although I have some ideas about ...
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What does 他得经历九九八十一难 refer to?
I was watching a 西游记 adaptation from Little Fox Chinese and I've come across a sentence with numbers I can't quite understand. I read the translation but yet it doesn't make sense:
"观音菩萨吃惊地看着信使。“...
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What does 我知道 and 应该的 mean in this dialogue?
There's this dialogue here: (3:20) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yelfxueMlvc
请问，洗手间在哪里？
洗手间？在那边。在那里的右手边。
哦，好。我知道。谢谢.
不客气，应该的。
So... "我知道" certainly doesn't mean "I know" here. ...
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In 很高兴认识你 is there an implied 我 at the front or is 很高兴 modifying 认识 as in "happily meet"?
I know that I'm asking about an expression which doesn't have to follow the normal rules of grammar. But if it makes sense to ask, I'd like to understand if that sentence is literally structured as "...
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What are the common ice-breaker sentences in Chinese?
There are sentences in English like "What's up?" "What's going on?" "how have you been?" to begin a conversation with or to greet people (friends or relatives)
So what are the common ice-breaker ...
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Difference between 曾经 and 已经
In this question I was asking about 曾经 and one answer says it means 'already'.
What's the difference between 曾经 and 已经?
Do the two sentences below have the same meaning?
他曾经在北京学过两年汉语。
他已经在北京学过两年汉语。
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Chinese of “No one will think you’re mute because you don’t speak”
Does anyone know the correct Chinese expression that goes something like no one would think you’re mute because you don’t speak? And how it’s correctly written in Chinese?
I’ve read the translation a ...
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Are these two form of "I live in..." both correct? 我在意大利住 and 我住在意大利
While studying I came across a useful expression to say "I live in..." which is "...在...住" such as in this sentence:
我在意大利住。= I live in Italy.
Wǒ zài Yìdàlì zhù.
But then I saw a different one ...
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