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The connotation of 学堂 is more than "an old expression of school", but "an old-style school in ancient China". A typical 学堂 only has one room and one teacher and few students (compared with a modern school). Just imagine the place where Confucius taught his followers.
学校:
学堂:
9
The radical in 猫 actually comes from 豸 zhi4 (beast), which you can still see in the traditional character 貓.
Whereas the radical in 狗 is in fact 犭 quan3.
The simplified version of 猫 got the 犭 quan3 radical because of trait reduction and semantic affinity (dog -> beast).
If it sounds easier to you, you can think of 犭 quan3 in simplified Chinese as ...
7
1) "究竟" is more formal than "到底". In everyday spoken Chinese, "究竟" is rarely used. It is used almost only in drama and written Chinese.
2) Well, I would say that the magnitude of "究竟" is equal to that of "到底". They are all equivalent to "on the earth".
7
Actually, if Twitter were to play fair, I think they would restrict Chinese users to 46 characters, since there are 3 bytes / UTF-8 encoded Chinese character, and only 1 byte / English letter. Alternately, in terms of number of bytes, the right comparison is probably between 140 characters of Chinese and 420 characters of English.
Consider the differences ...
6
I prefer X to Y can be translated as:
我喜欢X甚于Y
比起Y来，我更加喜欢X
我喜欢X的程度要超过Y
我喜欢Y，更加喜欢X
So,
I prefer eating fried rice over eating fried chicken. 我喜欢炒饭胜过炸鸡
6
In general, I think too much importance is ascribed to which transcription system is used. Students' ability to distinguish, pronounce and remember tones depends on many factors and the way the tones are written is just a very small part of it. Even if there was a difference between systems, it would probably drown in other factors.
The question of tonal ...
6
忍受 = to endure/ to stand (put up with)
Your question is about the difference between two particles '住' and '了'; It also involve the usage of a potential particles '得' (see How to determine the part of speech tags of words succeeding 不 like these?)
住 as a particles denotes a verb is in a continuous state:
忍受住 = to endure (continuously)
忍受得住 = ...
5
I was told that 未来 is further in the future than 将来. Is this true?
Not necessarily:
我将来要买辆车。-- Several years.
我将来要成为音乐家。-- Several decades.
人类将来会灭绝。-- Several millennia, to be optimistic.
宇宙将来会热寂。-- Several billion years, probably.
In these cases 将来 works as adverbs, it can be used for the most distant future. You can use 未来 in all these examples, but it ...
5
Technically, 层 is the measure word and 楼 is the noun being measured. They compliment each other and are not grammatically interchangeable, but the sentences you've heard are results from idiomatic omissions. There are two common situations:
1 . When we put 层 and 楼 together and an ordinal number before them, they form a noun phrase meaning the N-th floor:
...
5
As a native Chinese speaker, I would say that your feeling is correct.
Usually, "近几年" is used in the news - like in newspapers and on the news on TV or in broadcasts.
Anyway, they are interchangeable, so don't worry about the usage of them. They have the complete same meaning.
5
禁食 - Forbidden to eat or drink. i.e. fasting.
斋戒 - This word can have a different meaning according to different religions. For example:
Islam - no food or drinks at all
Christianity - no meat from warmblooded (i.e. fish / shrimps are allowed)
Chinese Buddhism - no meat / alcohol and certain types of vegetable
Therefore, it depends on the situation ...
5
As @Stan said, 檢索 is usually used with database(資料庫) or library catalog(圖書目錄).
You must have some reference (a catalog, or a list...etc) to be able to 檢索. It's not only formal but more restricted. Whereas 找 can be used very widely.
For example one would say "在資料庫裡檢索資料", "在圖書目錄裡檢索資料", and "在網路上找資料", "在圖書館裡找資料", ...etc.
So you can search (or find) (找) for ...
5
i'm Chinese. these words are the same word, means exactly the same thing. It's just when we use QQ, some people use 噢 instead of 哦。kind of a personal preference. For example, I always use 哦, never 噢。in chinese, 其实没有什么区别，只不过是个人打字的习惯而已，呵呵。
5
Simply,
比～更: even (more)；
比～多了：much (more)；
他打篮球比我更好。： he plays basket ball even better than me.
他打篮球比我厉害多了。: he plays basket ball much better than me.
坐高铁比坐飞机更方便。: Taking high-speed railway is even more convenient than taking a flight.
坐高铁比坐飞机方便很多。: Taking high-speed railway is much more convenient than taking a flight.
Updated according to ...
5
It's quite easy to distinguish.
First is the conclusion:
"相比" in Chinese equals to "compare with" in English.It's usually a common verb.
"比" in Chinese equals to "more than" or "xxxer than" in English.It's usually a comparative form.
Their usages are quite different.
For example:
you can use "比" like "我比你高。(I'm taller than you.)" and "相比" like
"...
4
斋戒 zhāijiè
动
①（禁食荤、酒）abstain from meat, wine, etc. [when offering sacrifices to gods or ancestors]
②（封斋）fast
斋戒节
Ramadan
禁食 jìnshí
动
fast
禁食三日
three-day fast
and 斋戒 is more common to be used in a religious context.
4
检索 is more formal and often used with an abstract object such as information, or abstract information of some objects, such as books (you don't really 检索 the physical existence of the book, instead you 检索 the information of the book, like title, author etc). You can see it as a query.
找 is simply "to look for". And it's not very formal since modern Chinese ...
4
大棚 could be:
Commonly short for 蔬菜大棚, a warm house for growing vegetation, usually very large.
sometimes, a tent-like structure, not fully enclosed, often used as a mobile kitchen and dining area.
帐篷 is more of a closed tent which has a roof and has cloth walls all around it. It's built for people to sleep in. Campers and refugees may reside in 帐篷s.
大帐篷
...
4
剧本 and 脚本 are different.
剧本 is just like a novel, telling the actors and directors what the story is.
脚本 includes more detailed and technical information of every section or frame such as shot lengths, scene lens, mapping, background music and so on. When you get 脚本, you'll feel like watching an edited film. 脚本 are mostly for directors and camera ...
4
I don't know the nomenclature of mainland China but here in Taiwan:
All these are used when replying someone. Like when you say "Yeah?", "Is that right?", "Okay.", "Alright.", "Got it.", etc. in English.
哦 usually conveys a sense of questioning, as if you're surprised by something someone told you. But wether it's doubt or suspicion depends on context.
噢 ...
4
很 - very
真 - really
挺 - pretty
非常 - >= very, < extremely
相当 - quite
极为 - extremely
太 - too
These words are describing a 'level'.
挺 = 蛮 = 比较 < 很 <= 非常 = 特别 < 极为
太 is somehow special, means it is much more than you expected.
鞋太大：The shoes are larger than your size, regardless of whether your feet are large or small.
I'm answering this question ...
4
From the comment by @user6065
Similarities and differences of '看来', '看起来' and '看样子'
Similarities:
They are all conjunctions, used to make judgements or predictions based on a specific situation.
They could be used at the beginning of a sentence.
They are interchangeable sometimes
Examples:
天一下子阴了，看来(看起来/看样子)要下大雨了。
It is cloudy all of a sudden, looks ...
4
留学 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/words/20426/
to study abroad
'留' = 'stay'; '學' = 'study'
'留学' means 'stay (abroad) to study'
If you say: "我要去留學" (I am going to study abroad), it implies there is a clear destination. e.g. "我要去美国留学" (I am going to America to study). In this case, you are going to enroll to a particular ...
4
Technically, when you say "增加了n倍", "n倍" is describing the difference the two number. So the original x becomes x*(n+1), while the difference is n*x.
If you want to say that the latter number is just n times the former, then it is "增加到了(原来的)n倍"
However, in casual speech, people may not always respect this rule, which makes it confusing. Sometimes we have to ...
4
bkrs：不住 1) unable to v. (also repeatedly
continuously
constantly)，unable to (resist, conceal etc)
疼极了！我忍不住了！ It's awfully painful! I can't stand it anymore 忍不住
special cases having their own dictionary entries 禁不住（承受不住） be unable to bear or endure:
这种植物禁不住冻。 This plant can't stand frost.
你怎么这样禁不住批评? How is it that you can't stand a little bit of criticism?
...
3
http://www.zhihu.com/question/22062059
You can have a look at this link for the first answer which compared 將來 未來 以後 in detail.
I will do some simple translation as followed.
The differences between 將來 and 未來 is mainly the differences of the first word. 將 means the time state that sth is going to happen, whereas 未 concentrates more on sth haven't happen ...
3
When use 有 in comparison:
In positive way you can use 今天和昨天一样热(Today is as hot as yesterday) or 今天有昨天那么热 instead of 今天有昨天热.Because it's more normal expression.
In negative way you can use 他没(有)你(那么)细心 which will omit character 有 or 今天没(有)昨天(那么)热.
It's better to add 那么 in comparison to emphasize comparison.
3
They are interchangeable and have the same meaning in almost all cases. However, 近幾年 is slightly more genteel and tends to appear in literatures.
In daily conversation, we generally say "這幾年".
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