Questions tagged [phrase-request]
The phrase-request tag has no usage guidance.
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Ordering the same thing again, would I use "再來"?
In a bar/café/etc say I've finished my drink and want to order another, what idiomatic ways are there to order another one the same?
Would it involve 再來 as Google Translate suggests but other web ...
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How to ask the other to speak shorter?
I talk with a voice assistant 小爱同学.
When I ask it: 今天是几号？
It answers: 今天是9月30号，周四，衣历辛丑年八月二十四。
It is difficult for me to understand this phrase.
I want a shorter answer: 今天是9月30号 or 30号 or 三十.
小爱同学 is ...
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4
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Is there a Chinese phrase equivalent to "difficult to eat"?
I wonder if there is a Chinese word or phrase equivalent to "difficult to eat" or "hard to eat".
For example, someone said that pomegranates and artichokes are among the 19 most ...
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How to politely ask “What do you really mean?” [closed]
Every now and then in conversation it’s normal for us to have suspicions about the true intentions of a question, comment, proposal, etc., that someone says to us. Having some standard responses ready ...
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How to ask the flight attendant for more airplane meals if there are still leftovers?
Can anyone help me? I want to emphasize the word "leftover" so I do not sound so greedy. I also felt that it would be a waste since most of the meals needed to be thrown away if it is not ...
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2
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Is there a common idiom equivalent to "tomato tomahto" in mandarin?
I'm being very nitpicky with a coworker (20s, first language is mandarin) and I'm trying to tease myself playfully by saying something along the lines of "tomato tomahto" in mandarin.
I'm ...
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7
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How to say something "gets old fast"?
Describing something as 'getting old fast' is a very common phrase in English to describe something that as tedious, but it has the nuance that the thing may not be boring initially. Is there a ...
user23661
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1
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How to ask about career intentions/aspirations
I found this helpful post on the site outlining how to ask a child what they want to do/be when they grow up.
Examples:
長大後你想做什麼?
你長大後想當什麼?
你长到以后想干什么啊?
Are these questions equally appropriate for ...
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How would I say 'what ...' in Mandarin
I think the French ce qui/que says it better. This is what I mean:
I do what I want. (Je fais ce que je veux, in French)
How would the 'what' be translated?
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A guy looked at me in the bathroom, what should I have said
You know those situations where you think back on the situation and wish you would have said something different? Here is one of those.
Situation
I am a male in my lower 20's and I was using the ...
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"How's that sound?" in Mandarin
What would be an appropriate way to end a sentence after making a suggestion/offering an opinion in anticipation of the response? For instance, while talking to a friend, I share something with them ...
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8
answers
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What is the correct way to ask "How do I get to your school" in Mandarin?
Here my focus is to understand the correct usage of 怎么走 and 到.
The English sentence is, "How do I get to your school". This is in terms of asking the directions to reach the school.
I found three ...
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What is the Chinese lady in this 5-second video clip saying?
https://streamable.com/e/n5fhft?autoplay=1
I finally cut it out, uploaded and asked about it after wondering about it for years. What is she saying?
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How do you say weekend in Chinese using the 星期 form?
I know that weekend in Chinese is generally translated as 周末.
Is there a way to say weekend by adding something to 星期 like 星期末? Or the only phrase for weekend is 周末?
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How do you ask "Who is your dad" in Chinese? [duplicate]
I am learning Chinese on Duolingo and recently saw a translation of "Who is your dad?" as 谁是你的爸爸.
When I used Google translate I got a similar answer.
I have learnt (in the basics) that we put the ...
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Ancient Chinese Saying #437: ... 10,000 days for the sword
The English martial arts internet is awash in people reciting
100 days of bare hand, 1,000 days of spear, 10,000 days of sword,
unless it's
It takes 100 days to learn the spear, 1000 days to learn ...
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5
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How to translate 脑袋短路 into English?
I would ask this on ELL but I honestly have no idea how to express this in English. Online translation give "brain short circuit", which sounds more like terminology than self-mockery. I am ...
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How to say ‘run for office’ in Mandarin?
I’ve searched dictionary and found 2 words: 参选 and 竞选.
I’m a bit confused, since it seems that 参选 is used more, but in Vietnamese (my mother tongue) we used the word “tranh cử” (爭舉). So what is the ...
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Is there a proverb that means "the squeaky wheel gets the grease"?
Is there a Chinese (Mandarin or Classical Chinese) proverb equivalent to the American proverb "the squeaky wheel gets the grease"?
I looked it up in the Cambridge English-Traditional Chinese ...
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Chinese phrase for a physician's "residency program"?
I am looking for a phrase in Chinese which means the residency program that physicians go through after graduation from medical school. See here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Residency_(medicine)
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What is this proverb?
I met someone who told me a proverb which in English read as follows:
Wake up late and you lose the morning. Wake up early and you lose the
whole day.
She repeated it in Mandarin very quickly ...
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2
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Is there a way to say "I respectfully thank you" to familiar elders?
From here.
Honorific Verbs
Like nouns and proper nouns, some Chinese verbs can also be complemented with an honorific modifier. For example, the verbs 告gào ("to tell"), 还huán ("to ...
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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.
...
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What variant phrases of 五里不同天 exist?
五里不同天 is defined in《广安方言与民俗词典》as:
比喻地区不同，事物就有差异。
I remember long ago hearing that in 福建 they say that the culture changes every nine li, but I never learned the actual phrase.
What similar ...
Mou某♦
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1
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Descriptors for moody teenagers?
There are few common ways to describe moody teenagers, albeit not overly precise:
(很)叛逆(期)
or
青春(期)
I'm wondering if there is anything more colorful to describe these cranky kids?
Mou某♦
- 35.4k
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1
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Chinese phrases akin to “back to the grindstone”?
A colorful way to mention you’re going back to work, especially after a break is by saying:
back to the grindstone
This is just usually plainly, and rather matter of factly, translated as:
回去干活
...
Mou某♦
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Word for banana blossoms in Chinese
This Web Page shows that banana blossoms correspond to what a Chinese friend of mine from Beijing used to call "tall skinny Chinese person" or "long skinny Chinese person". Upon stumbling upon this ...
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How do you say "You mean ...?" to respond to what you don't understand enough?
In English, it is common to ask "You mean XXX...?" when a person does not understand enough what the conversation opponent said. I'm now in China, and to express the same thing I usually say ...
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Is this an actual phrase, "Sao Wei Deng Yi Xia" (please wait a moment)?
So I learned most of my Chinese through speaking, and I swear (especially in a service setting), people say something like:
"Sao Wei Deng Yi Xia"
等一下 is obvious, but I have not been able ...
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How would you interpret: "你的美如日; 你的智若猫头鹰"?
How do you interpret the phrase: "你的美如日; 你的智若猫头鹰" (Nǐ dì měi rú rì; nǐ de zhì ruò māotóuyīng in Mandarin)?
I'm trying to say something like: "Your beauty is like the sun; your wisdom is like an owl's"...
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How to express giving two people some privacy?
Recently I noticed that a young girl waited for several hours, so as to be able to pass the break with my younger colleague. So my friend and I took a walk outside.
Though this is not something I ...
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What does the phrase 'holding in the palm of hands' in chinese mean?
I've read that phrase in a lot of stories and in a lot of different form; could you tell me the official form of that phrase (or maybe idiom) and its meaning?
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What is a polite response to 《很高興認識你》？
I usually say 《我也是》， but it feels like an awkward response, and maybe a bit cold. Is there a common friendly or colloquial response? Thank you!
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How to give a thinly veiled threat?
I want to know a phrase in Chinese that most native speakers would immediately understand to be a (thinly veiled) threat to their physical safety, very similar to "You had better watch your back" in ...
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2
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phrase request: complexity of interpersonal relationships
This has been harder to find than I imagined.
I'm looking for any sort of phrase or quote that talks about how, very, complex interpersonal relationships are.
The best I've found so far is something ...
Mou某♦
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How do I translate 'do well on your test' into Chinese?
How do I translate 'do well on your test' into Chinese?
My friend is taking a test tomorrow. Although he speaks English to me, I thought it would be nice to wish him success in chinese.
Is 祝你好运测试 ...
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Effective and polite way to end a phone conversation
What are some ways that I can let the other speaker know I want to finish a phone conversation and am going to hang up.
I frequently come across as too abrupt. Usually something along the lines of ...
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