Questions tagged [writing]
Questions related to written Chinese. Note: there are separate tags for 'handwriting' and 'characters'.
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Logic behind the strokes of complex characters
I am learning Chinese now, and we've been introduced to Chinese characters as 'pictograms'. I understand the logic behind some characters, like 口 mouth to and 人 person.
But, what about complex ...
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Capitalization in Chinese
Many languages have uppercase and lowercase forms. English for example has lowercase a and uppercase A. Letters written in uppercase are known as being capitalized. Chinese, also, does have a form of "...
Mou某♦
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Correct writing of 酉
Wenlin dictionary describes the writing of 酉 by a third stroke as a 𠃍 héngzhé and not a ㇆ héngzhégōu.
When i look at https://www.zdic.net/hans/酉 it is more a ㇆ héngzhégōu.
When i look at https://...
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在 ... 之余 : It looks like there is a grammar point using 之 in that construction (found on archchinese). Who can explain that point?
On the website "archchinese" there are a few expressions using 在 followed by a part of sentence ending with 之余, 之前, 之后, 之际 :
在 … 之余
在 … 之前
在 … 之后
在 … 之际
Anyone can give a few explanations ?...
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Chinese gibberish in a desktop program
My company uses a service to observe several rooms in our office, and when I downloaded the program to allow me to observe these videos some of the text functions fine and some of the text appears as ...
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If you can use Chinese nouns as verbs, or vice versa
In English you have words like "badge" which are typically a noun, but they can also be verbs, "They need to badge in" to use their keycard to get in. Shortly, "Badge in please". You can have other ...
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What is the line “大势一去水东流” from?
I came across this line from 第一章 6 载昆 夫人 古老夫子:
“你们，莫冒火，听我来唱戏，”古老夫子真的唱起来。“事其所以观其所由，大势一去水东流。夫人呀，莫生气，请饮酒！”
I'm curious where the line:
事其所以观其所由，大势一去水东流
originates from.
事其所以观其所由 should probably ...
Mou某♦
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What about the orthography of 苹 (like in 苹果)? It seems consensus is missing
I recently came across an anomaly in Chinese orthography which I can't explain myself. Please take a look at the following picture (screenshot from the Duolingo course on Chinese, I guess in lecture &...
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Do Chinese speaking different languages use written Chinese to communicate?
My understanding is that there are multiple languages in China, for example, Hokkien, Cantonese and Mandarin, and they are not mutually intelligible. However, all three use more or less the same ...
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Is the layout of the Chinese characters relevant to the meaning?
I am new to Chinese but have seen documents where the layout of the characters seems to fit certain patterns, and I'm wondering if it is significant in some way.
For example, one is this:
是以成神,名曰石拆神,...
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Does the convention to paraphrase a word in an article exist in Mandarin?
In an article over 人民网:
据日本TBS电视台报道,这名女大学生就读于东京都内某大学4年级,涉嫌违反野生动物保护法被逮。泰国警察介绍，这名日本女大学生当天打算搭乘返回成田机场的航班，被机场工作人员发现在行李中藏匿了10只水獭。
被捕女大学生交代“水獭是在曼谷市场附近地摊购买，打算当特产送给朋友。自己是第一次来泰国旅行，并不清楚不能带水獭”。 ...
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written characters: bèi vs jiàn
I have two books displaying different meannings for characters that look the same to me: What is the difference (if any) among the character for "bèi" (shell, money) and "jiàn" (to see)?
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Seeking Help Deciphering Characters on Small (Lead?) Vase with Teapot Enclosed
I have no skill in reading Chinese characters (hopefully someday) and would be grateful if anyone can help me decipher the writing on this object, which belonged to my grandparents. They traveled to ...
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How can I write my simple text better? Number 2
I'm learning a lot by having you guys correct my stupid texts. Thanks a lot!
I wanted to do it again, so here we go:
Text:
我的工作室程序员，我知道java很好。
我想想会是警察，这样我学习学习的。
我学习韩语因为汉语学习是我的爱好。
谢谢你们因为你们看了我的写作。
What ...
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Background guy in tik toks
Often in chinese tik tok compilations, there is a guy in the background who says something sounding like "ayodema" or something like that... I'd like to ask you what he is actual saying and ...
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How many English words does 4000-8000 Chinese characters correspond to?
I have to write a grant application in Chinese. I intend to write it in English first, and then get a friend to translate it for me. I am supposed to give an overview of my research project with a ...
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how to type the degree sign (°) using Chinese IME on iOS/(mac)OS?
Some people say you can
打“摄氏度”
to get: ℃ but that seems to be a sogou IME thing only - and boy does that celsius degrees C look ugly.
Others suggest:
“插入”“特殊符号”
but that just seems to be a ...
Mou某♦
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Should old texts characters be modernized?
When referring to old texts should their characters be modernized?
For example if I were to quote/use:
㕥
Should 㕥 be “updated” to 以? Even if the text is written in traditional?
Perhaps another ...
Mou某♦
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Name underlining (whole word or just part of it?)
This one question is similar, but doesn't quite answer what I am asking here.
If I have a name + title (as in 张老师) how would the underlining work? Would I have to underline the whole word ("张老师") or ...
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Are Chinese characters always in a perfect square shape, or are there fonts with rectangular characters?
Are all Chinese characters in all fonts placed in a perfect square grid, or are there fonts which make characters slightly rectangular such as 5:6 aspect ratio or 8:9 aspect ratio, etc. E.g. you find ...
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Is the text 若承租人是公司，则必须提供法定代表人资料 official and correct?
I asked a good friend of mine to write the following text in Chinese: if tenant is a company, it should provide the name of the representative.
She translated into: 若承租人是公司，则必须提供法定代表人资料。
Since it's ...
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Does a good OCR of "Western Mandarin, or, The spoken language of western China" by Grainger, Adam exist?
Archive.org has a really pristine scan of "Western Mandarin, or, The spoken language of western China" by Grainger, Adam.
It's great. It really is.
It is completely comprised of "photos&...
Mou某♦
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Can 上 always be used like English ” ” (i.e.: same as above)?
In English parts or fragments of sentences can simple be duplicated with ditto marks, here's an example from Wikipedia:
Black pens, box of twenty ..... $2.10
Blue ” ” ” ” ..... ...
Mou某♦
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How To Go About Learning Tangut [closed]
I have tried to research this topic for many nights, but I cannot
find any resources. I know it's a very old but i've always been
intrigued by Tangut.
More specifically, i'd like to go about learning ...
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Translation verification for a notice
Hello everyone I hope you can help me with a translation. I am looking for a Cantonese teacher (or speaker for that matter) in my area and I want to post a notice. I have asked and received a ...
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Learning to read Chinese but not speak [duplicate]
Are there good resources for learning Chinese from the ground up with a bias torwards reading and not speaking. For me the ability to read would be much more useful. Pronunciation is the hardest part ...
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Are there words in Mandarin written by characters for other words that mean the same thing?
For example, in written Chinese 给 is used a ideograph for "to give" and is read with whatever the word for "to give" is in the various languages, even if the word is not cognate or in any way related ...
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Is writing characters top-to-bottom and then left-to-right acceptable?
I know 草莓西瓜果泥 reads STRAWBERRY WATERMELON PUREE
Would this be acceptable too?
草 西 果
莓 瓜 泥
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Why does 努力 which means "to make a great effort" sound so similar to 奴隸 which means "slave"?
I find it interesting that these two are phonetically similar. Is there a historical background to this?
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What are ways to create "simplifed" Chinese characters?
Most Chinese characters have two parts, a radical and a phonetic. So different ways to simplify them might include the following:
1) Simplify the radical, retain the phonetic. Example: 调
2) Simplify ...
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chinese essay review? [closed]
I just started to learn Chinese a few years ago but I find essay-writing especially difficult. For example, the following essay took me about 45 minutes to an hour and I was told that it had poor word ...
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why is "象" meaning representation, form, shape etc.?
character early writings is derived from the elephant by I can't find an explanation to why it became also use for this other meaning.
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What is wrong with how I wrote 你也不会呢 in 20年来，没有人相信我。你也不会呢？
I've been using LangCorrect recently to get feedback on my writing. Recently, I wrote this:
我的话让老妈失望地叹了口气，说：“20年来，没有人相信我。你也不会呢？我不是在撒谎！我不是在骗你！”那时，老妈站了起来，开始收拾东西准备走。
I received three corrections, one ...
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Reference for different looking ways of writing a character?
Is there any online database or printed reference work where it's possible to look up a character and see it written in many different styles, like different printing fonts, cursives and pictures from ...
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Where to write a diary in Chinese? [closed]
Practicing Chinese is hard when you are not following regular lectures or if you do not know anyone with who talk.
Beyond practicing everyday following a book or an app, I would like to write ...
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How to write Chinese fluently?
After learning how to write chinese by directly copying characters from my phone or my computer (digital ones), I noticed that I still can’t decipher the character chinese people are writing.
I know ...
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Is it ok to use 他 as a gender neutral personal pronoun (instead of 她) when the subject is known to be female?
Is it ok to use 他 as a gender neutral personal pronoun (as it used to be before 她 was introduced) even if I know that the subject is female?
Example: 他是我妹妹 vs 他是我妹妹
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Traditional alternative to 水寫布 (water-writing paper) for calligraphy practice?
I'd like to practice my writing with brush, and came across this textile that I think is used a lot in schools at least in Taiwan:
Image from http://detail.net114.com/chanpin/1018435996.html
It's ...
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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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How are Chinese words created (both spelling and sound)?
I am trying to translate new words in English into Chinese.
Say we have some new words in English that have never been translated.
Ga (gah) = To walk upside down
Ba (bah) = Half unicorn half ...
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If Chinese characters are ever used like numbers like in English
In English, especially in the software/programming world, you use letters as numbers a lot such as with hex encoding, using the alphabet 0123456789abcdef for 16 numbers, so you might write a number as ...
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What are good resources for Chinese calligraphy?
Pen writing and brush writing is also welcome.
If possible, I hope you can give your evaluate for these resourses.
I have heard 灵飞经 is a good copybook. Are there something close to that?
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What is the most efficient method in memorising written characters so as to expand written vocabulary?
I have noticed that my reading and listening skills far exceed that of my writing capabilities. What is the most practical method to learn to write characters quickly, but also be able to use them in ...
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Handwriting Certain Radicals
I notice that some typefaces (especially ones used in old texts) have some radicals displayed differently than what I usually see. For example sometimes I see the 糹 (left-side) radical displayed like ...
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Is there such a thing as a run-on-sentence in Chinese?
In Chinese articles I often find these long, never-ending, main-point-less sentences.
For instance check out these three sentence-paragraphs from this news article ("请给90后创业者多一些宽容")
...
Mou某♦
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Writer looking for Chinese name for a character
I'm writing a novel and I have a character that is of Chinese descent. The story takes place centuries into the future on another planet with only a handful (few several thousand) humans left. Of ...
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Naming characters in a xianxia short fiction!
I am in the midst of trying to learn mandarin but haven't learned enough to feel confident in my naming for some short fiction I'm writing. I'd love suggestions or changes!
Cáo Shīhán, a protagonist &...
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Tips and suggestions for learning Chinese (reading and writing) as a native
Just joined this site to post this question that I hope someone can help me with.
Just a little background about myself. I’m a Malaysian Chinese, and obviously I’m born in Malaysia. We live in a ...
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What's a mnemonic for remembering the characters in 建议 and 意见?
This is a little bit embarrassing, considering I'm currently studying HSK6-level content, but I cannot memorize how to write the HSK4 words:
建议 (jiànyì)
CC-CEDICT: to propose / to suggest / to ...
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How would you write the years 1951 and 1964 in Chinese characters?
I know how to write the normal way to write numbers in Chinese but I wanted to know how to write years can anyone help me out? I really like the idea of getting this tattoed on me and I would like to ...
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