Questions tagged [mandarin]
Question specifically about the Mandarin dialect. (Not for arbitrary questions that happen to involve Mandarin.)
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Is it correct to say “在手机”？
Would it be correct to use the phrase "在手机”/“在手机上” etc. to express that I am doing something on my phone? For example, could I say
我听音乐在我的手机上。
Or can 在 only be used for my actual physical location?...
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Why can't 去 or 回来 be used with 在 or 正在 to become progressive
So first off, I feel I should specify I am a beginner at Chinese. In my Chinese class, we were asked to write down a progressive question, using the 在...(呢) format. My question was, 你们没在去吗？ which I ...
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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 most.
...
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How formal is 如何 in the context of 最近如何?
I was told by friend who is a native mainland speaker that "最近如何", or anything using "如何" to inquire about the state of a person, is a very ancient/formal way of speaking. This was quite a shock to me&...
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Why can't 了 be used to indicate a completed action that has yet to come?
了 is a particle that indicates the perfective--the verb has no interior composition. This is different from the perfect aspect in English which focuses on the result of an action in the past that may ...
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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 ...
Mou某♦
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斯 vs 这 vs 此 for the meaning "this"?
What are the differences between these three, 斯 vs 这 vs 此, and any other characters or words for "this" in Mandarin Chinese?
I'm just a beginner and I've noticed at least these few characters are in ...
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Is there a traditional Chinese New Year greeting?
I know people often say 新年快乐 to mean happy new year, but is there a traditional greeting used in Chinese to express your good wishes for the new year? If so, what, and how did it originate?
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Two "question words" in one sentence
One of my teachers asked us the example question:
你有什么安排吗？
I asked her why there would be two "question words", 什么 and 吗, when I believed you should only have one question word (in this case, 吗 ...
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Is Putonghua Mandarin Chinese or is it standard Mandarin Chinese?
This is driving me crazy.
I've always thought that Mandarin was the common language of China and Putonghua was the term use to express this language spoken with standard pronunciation.
I've often ...
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What qualities does Hong Kong Mandarin have?
With Mandarin making more and more in-roads into Cantonese speaking Hong Kong, I'm wondering what characteristics set it apart from Standard Mandarin or other regional Mandarin dialects and/or accents....
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What is the correct way to write 'niu bi', and how did it get its meaning in Chinese?
'niu bi' (牛逼? like the bees knees in English) is one of the more amusing expressions I learnt in my time in China. The literal meaning in English is quite colourful, so I won't describe it here, but I'...
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Longest sentence where all characters have the same sound
What is the longest sentence that can be constructed where all the characters have the same sounds in Mandarin, but may have different tones? I'm sure many people have heard of 'mothers insulting ...
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How to pronounce 廿卅卌 in Chinese?
I originally just wanted to ask something about 廿 (20). But as I searched on the internet I found 卅(30) and 卌(40) as well, and I have to admit that I didn't know these two.
I think 廿 is pronounced as ...
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Does Chinese require more context to avoid ambiguities than English?
After some time learning Chinese, I feel Chinese language is more ambiguous than English or Spanish, in the sense that a single sentence without some context can easily have multiple distinct meanings,...
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Is the position of 都 in a sentence important？ (example inside)
In this instance i'm trying to communicate "every" or "each"
What do you usually do on weekends?
你週末通常都做什麼
Vs
你週末都通常做什麼
Is there a meaningful difference in the position in this sentence? or is ...
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Is the pinyin of 「操」in「情操」and「步操」the same in Mandarin？
Originally posted at http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/phorum/read.php?4,130404
由細到大，自己同身邊嘅人都將「劉備」個「備」字讀成與(比)字同音
而「曹操」個「操」字就讀成與(粗)字同音
但最近睇港版，『三國 』(2013)
「劉備」個「備」字讀成「預備」個「備」
而「曹操」個「操」字就讀成「...
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Is 个 acceptable for all nouns? [duplicate]
My Chinese teacher says she doesn't care. But for future reference, is 个 acceptable as a measure word for all nouns?
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Should I pronounce “er” as [ɚ] or [aɚ̯]?
What I learned growing up was that words with the pinyin “er”, like 儿, 二, and 耳 were pronounced [ɚ], but younger/more native speakers of Standard Chinese seem to pronounce it as [aɚ], and I was ...
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"an" final pronunciation
I have had eight mainland Chinese teachers over the time I have spent studying, and I am still confused, because I find there are inconsistencies between my textbook's audio CDs, my teachers' ...
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Is Learning and Memorizing Chinese Characters much different than English?
Unlike English, Chinese is not a spelling language, which means there is no hint from the characters themselves for pronunciation. Therefore, we can only work on the characters individually to figure ...
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What is the Mandarin equivalent of Cantonese's 麻麻地 (so-so)?
How do you say "so-so" in Mandarin? In Cantonese, you would say 麻麻地. What's the Mandarin equivalent of 麻麻地?
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質: when to pronounce in 2nd tone or 4th (Mandarin)?
In Mandarin, sometimes 質 is pronounced with the 2nd tone (e.g., 質地, 特質) and other times it's pronounced with the 4th tone (e.g., 質疑, 質量, 品質).
Here are two words pronounced with the 2nd tone:
質地 http:...
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Do Mandarin people use 補鑊 as slang to represent fence-mending or damage control?
Cantonese people often use 補鑊 to mean fence-mending or damage control.
Do Mandarin people use this phrase as well? If not, what phrase would be the Mandarin equivalent?
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Is referring to Mandarin as just "Chinese" problematic?
I am living in Taiwan learning Mandarin Chinese (with traditional characters). When speaking in English I try to refer to the language as Mandarin both for clarity, and because I imagine people who ...
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Confusion when words are combined
Hello I have been learning Mandarin for only a few weeks, although an issue has been bugging me.
It concerns combining words together to make a sentence.
For example I have heard that a correct ...
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會講國語 vs. 講國語: when to use one or the other?
When explaining to someone if you can speak Mandarin, there are people who suggest saying 我會講國語 and others who suggest 我講國語.
Appparently, 會講 suggests a higher level of competence whereas 講 alone ...
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Besides the radical, what meaning does the rest of a Chinese character have (especially when it was originally created)?
I am a beginning student of Mandarin Chinese. There is a key thing about Chinese characters that I am trying to understand. Besides the radical, what purpose does the rest of a character have? Was it ...
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Safe to always use 之後 instead of 以後, and 之前 instead of 以前?
According to this grammar page, it appears like 之後 can always replace 以後, whereas 以後 cannot always replace 之後. However, these grammar pages are not always reliable.
1) For simplicity, is it safe to ...
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Questions about the Taiwanese mandarin accent
I recently got into learning mandarin, mainly because I recently travelled to Taiwan and really enjoyed their version of it.
Now I want to learn mandarin, possibly with a Taiwanese accent but I haven'...
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When should I use 地 with an adjective and when should I not use it with an adverb (and why do some adverbs require 地)?
I got quite confused these days with the grammar rule that adds 地 to an adjective to make it work as an adverb. My basic understanding is that you must add 地 to make an adjective work as an adverb, ...
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What is the difference between colloquial and literary readings of characters?
This CantoDict page for 熟 says：
Pinyin shu2 is literary reading; shou2 is colloquial.
What does this mean? More importantly, how are you supposed to pronounce 熟 in Mandarin? :)
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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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What happens when you use the individual characters in 姓氏 and 名字?
姓氏 refers to surname, and 名字 refers to personal name.
But I’ve heard people using the separate characters to talk about surnames and personal names.
For example:
我的中文老师姓姚
林氏集团 (Lin’s Corporation, ...
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Does xiang (third tone) mean "want" or "echo"?
I am reading this set of poems for my humanities class. One of the lines is:
Supposedly, the last character is xiang with a third tone and it means to "sound" or "echo".
But I thought this character ...
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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 ...
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Mandarin: when is it okay to use only 點 instead of 一點?
一點 means "a little" when applied to adjectives. For instance, 快一點 means faster (i.e., fast a little) but often times people shorten 快一點 to 快點.
What is the principle for shortening 一點 to 點?
Can you ...
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How would you say "X, the Y" in Chinese?
I am currently learning Mandarin in Simplified Chinese. I've just started learning so I cannot speak all that well. However, here is my problem:
I have a Chinese family coming over. They are proud ...
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Is the 边～边 the synonym for 一边～一边?
Is the following sentence:
并与当地青年一同BBQ，边烧烤边交流。
Is the 边～边 the synonym for 一边～一边, which mean "doing ~ while doing ~"? Or is there any difference?
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Mandarin/Cantonese translation of "it depends on your definition of 'good'"
Alice takes Bob to a new steak restaurant.
Alice: Do you think the steak here is good?
Bob: It depends on your definition of "good."
1) What is the natural translation for Bob's statement? ...
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