Questions tagged [mandarin]
Question specifically about the Mandarin dialect. (Not for arbitrary questions that happen to involve Mandarin.)
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How to express "I'm reading about (something)" in oral speech/informal contexts?
Good day to you all!
I wanted to express the sentence: "I'm reading about the Malaysian language." I realized I didn't actually know how to express this, so I looked it up on a translator, ...
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How do you indicate a habitual, ongoing action, as opposed to an action you are currently doing?
Hear me out.
Recently I rediscovered the 2010 classic "Doin' Your Mom" by Ray William Johnson (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5t53TcKIlMc), and since the song is not really stimulating, my ...
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How can I answer the question "你什么时候开始学中文的?"
How can I answer the question "你什么时候开始学中文的?"
I cannot answer the "什么时候" questions. Can anybody help me please?
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Help choosing a better Chinese name
Recently, someone helped me come up with a Chinese name for myself, and after some discussion, the surname 高 and given names 偉恩, 大恩 and 太恩 were recommended.
The first (偉恩) I liked but found that it ...
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Translating as Past or Present tense
I am translating an excerpt of a Chinese short story. In general, do any indicators in Chinese grammar exist that would require the usage of past tense (in English) instead of present tense? In this ...
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What are the names of men's haircuts popular among young Chinese idols?
What are some popular haircuts among young Chinese idols (preferably men) called in Chinese? Preferable a list in Chinese, if possible.
For example, take the TFBoy members have haircuts that kind of ...
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What does this woman say in Chinese? (From the new Daredevil tv show)
I was watching the new Daredevil show and noticed this bit. I was hoping somebody might be able to explain what the elderly lady is saying...Thanks.
Here is the clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=...
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Question about third tone sandhi in two specific cases
I know of the commonly cited rules for third tones, which are the following (copied from somewhere else, so excuse the grammatical errors):
"When word with the 3rd tone is used alone, or used at the ...
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What is the difference between 日 and 号?
Right now I am taking Mandarin 1 in Brooklyn Tech. From my understanding, 号 and 日 both mean "day." I took it upon myself to check Google Translate and find out what they both mean for confirmation. I ...
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How to give news of my grandmothers death
In English I would say: I am sorry to say my grandmother passed away on X date.
How would I give that news in mandarin? Is there a way to say ‘I am sorry to say’ or do they not say that in mandarin?
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Ways to politely insult somebody's intelligence in Mandarin?
I know of many words to insult people and call them stupid, but a majority of them are incredibly offensive. There are more polite phrases, such as 真笨, which I've seen used within families (as a plain ...
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Two-part Allegorical Saying Collection | 歇后语合集
歇后语 is a unique language form of Chinese.
The allegorical words are composed of two parts. The first part plays a guiding role, like a riddle, and the second part plays a role as a foil, like an ...
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How to say "productive" in Mandarin and Cantonese? Google Translate says 生產的
效率 means efficient, but what is the word for productive in Cantonese and Mandarin?
CantoDict does not have an entry, and Google lists 生產的 which feels wrong.
For instance, let's say you want to ...
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When you first meet someone, sometimes they say (for example): " 我是小朋...“
。。。 “小时的小,朋友的朋。”
I think Chinese people will say that because you may not know how their name is written, so you get a better description of what their name is.
But... does the word have to be the ...
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Can anyone identify the characters on this ivory pipe?
My father-in-law showed us an ivory pipe that his family has had for many decades.
I can’t identify the characters by looking up the radical and then the remaining strokes.
Can anyone help out?
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Timeframe for Learning Ancient Chinese
As a complete newbie to the Chinese language, I would like to ask the following questions.
What is an approximate time for learning enough of the Chinese language to be able to read something like ...
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Irregular syllables in Mandarin—how does 二 ("èr") exist? [duplicate]
So Mandarin has a pretty regular syllable construction. Usually, it's consonant-vowel. It cheats a little sometimes in a few ways, like ending on an n or an r or beginning with a w or a y and ...
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Hokkien name to Mandarin
A friend of mine has a Hokkien name of 'eng leng' (leng is long and means dragon). However, I have no idea of this 'eng'. This name was given by her ancestor who is really passed. So I am helpless ...
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How to properly translate "to deserve" while preserving its moral implication?
Over the course of my studies and practice in Chinese, there's one particular type of sentence that I always get wrong: the one with the verb to deserve.
In English — and several other neo-latin ...
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can you help me identify the word xiamen
In a mandarin course, before the dialogs they always say "qing ting ... Xiamen de duihua". I have never been able to find out what the word "xiamen" means. The rest of it means ...
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What is the exact meaning of 吃豆腐, and where does the expression come from?
I'm not talking about eating tofu, but the expression that means something more like taking advantage of someone. What exactly does 吃豆腐 mean, and where does this expression come from?
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How is adding oil going to beneficial to the situation? 加油
Is anyone able to explain the history behind this cheer?
At the face of it I'm unsure how this could be a cheer as 加 translate to add/plus/apply and 油 translates to oil/fat/grease you would think ...
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Are there any multi-syllabic words in Chinese without a glottal stop?
Are there any words in Chinese of 2 more syllables where there isn't a glottal stop between the syllables such that each syllable is not pronounced clearly, that a final consonant and initial ...
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Chinese frequency counter text analyser
Can you recommend tool where I can import text and get result list with words according their frequency in text.
Aim to import Chinese subtitles learn most frequent words and then watch movie.
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What is the difference between 碰,触,碰触 and 触碰
difference between 碰,触,碰触 and 触碰?The dictionary differences are not clear.
Thanks!
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Who knows the most number of characters in Chinese?
I am mainly just curious as to the answer. And it would be interesting to hear if it is different for simplified and traditional.
I know there are 80,000+ characters and most native speakers will ...
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Are the "h" in pinyin always pronounced as "[x]" in IPA?
Chinese (Mandarin) use [x] to pronounce h sound. It does not have any sounds such as [h] and [ɸ].
However, I'm not sure if it is fine to assume that all the h in pinyin are pronounced as [x]. ...
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Is it easier to learn Chinese after learning Japanese or vice versa?
For those who speak both Chinese and Japanese, would first learning Chinese make it easier to learn Japanese?
Knowing that Japanese Kanji are derived from Chinese characters, how hard is it to do the ...
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Could a translation error lead to squares to not be considered as rectangles? (Mandarin)
I'm reading a certain set of kindergarten/lower primary maths textbooks that is written by North American authors for an Asian company.
Whenever students are asked to identify the number of rectangles ...
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Phrase or idiom for "vocal minority"
How do you say "vocal minority" in Chinese? Specifially, in Mandarin?
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Help with expanding on a Chinese character's name (in headcanon)
(To clarify: I'm a white American, trying to make fanlore for a canonically Chinese character from a Korean game. There's several different levels of possible lost-in-translation here. If you need any ...
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How do you answer the following question when someone asks: 我想认识一个美国朋友,你给我介绍一下,可以吗?
我想认识一个美国朋友,你给我介绍一下,可以吗?
My Chinese teacher asked me the question above ^. Am I supposed to say:
这是我的中国老师, 王朋.
or
这是我的美国朋友, Rodger Smith.
Basically, should I be introducing my Chinese teacher who ...
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呢 meaning "where", is it possible?
Is it true that 呢 can mean "WHERE"??? If so, then what is the difference between 呢 and 哪儿???
I've seen those sentences and they made me wonder:
"我的杯子在哪儿? - where is my cup?" and &...
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Air quality meter name
I have an air quality detector meter.
It has the name of the manufactures written on the bottom.
What's the english translation?
Does this manufacturer have a web page?
Thanks
EDIT:
In the web page ...
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Month-on-month and Quarter-on-Quarter
I know that 同比 is “year over year”, while 環比 is “month over month”, but can also mean “quarter over quarter”. In reality, the latter is used to compare two different periods. Therefore, if one says 環比,...
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What’s the difference between 吃上饭 and 吃下饭?
I think one means it hasn’t happened yet and the other means it’s already happened, but I don’t really understand what that means when trying to translate into English or when trying to think of it in ...
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Are there readings exclusive used only for people name?
When reading songyuanyao's answer on Are people names always pronounced the same in Mandarin?, I suddenly wonder if Chinese has something similar to nanori in Japanese.
Basically, nanori is a special ...
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Does 没有办法 have the same idiomatic meaning in Chinese that "No way" does in English?
"No way" in English has a couple of meanings.
Like, it can be used to express surprise. Does 没有办法 also carry some idiomatic meanings?
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What are some popular Engish songs that have Mandarin translations?
I know a few like:
Perfect by Sophie Chen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjKumvgMy7s
Call Me Maybe by Dawen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grWp1KzmTYM
Are there any others?
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How do I ecourage my spouse, in Mandarin, to fly free in her job, and assure here we are supporting her and welcoming her home
My spouse just landed their dream job! They start next week and I am going to celebrate their first day.
Their dream is to be able to fly free, and high and to always be welcomed home in a warm and ...
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冰雪聪明... only for girls?
Is the expression 冰雪聪明 (bīng xuě cōng míng) really only used for girls? The literal translation is "snow smart" and I understand it means something along the lines of "extremely smart" but the times I'...
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What does "我牛起来" mean?
I know what each of the characters mean, but I'm confuse on how to put it into a sentence.
我 - I
牛 - ox
起来 - up
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Can someone translate what is written in this photo please?
Please i need help translating this into english. I have no idea what it says.
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How to discuss preferences / ask which do you prefer in Mandarin
How does one discuss preferences/ask what someone prefers out of a series of options?
Do you just list each option followed by 好不好?
Thanks
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What are the rules of writing a 对联 (chinese couplet)?
I have looked at the Wikipedia article "Couplet (Chinese Poetry)", but I think it poses more questions than answers.
So a 对联 (duì lián) is a "Chinese couplet":
it is composed of ...
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What's the difference between 候 and 等?
I've usually seen in my little Mandarin learning experience, that when people express wait, they usually use 等. However, I just noticed the following phrase in Sina Weibo:
请稍候...
I know 请 means ...
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what does 上疾 mean in this sentence (她在网球场上疾如闪电。)
I have the sentence 她在网球场上疾如闪电。I know that it means "she is as quick as lightning on the tennis court" What role does 上疾 have in the sentence it clearly doesn't mean, on disease!
Are there ...
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What tone for retroflex r?
The retroflex r is not the consonant r in a word (pinyin) like in 人 rén.
The retroflex is added as a suffix in the Beijing area, or as a diminutive suffix.
Would it be pronounced with the second tone,...
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Difference between 學識 and 知識?
According to these dictionary links, both 學識 and 知識 mean knowledge:
學識 - CantoDict
知識 (zi1 sik1 | zhi1 shi5) : knowledge; learning - CantoDict
What's the difference between 學識 and 知識?
Which one ...
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There is this song that I can't find the Pinyin lyrics to on Youtube
Can someone help me find it please? This is just copied and pasted from what should be the songs title 凌震 尤金 多看一眼