8
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What famous word or phrase can I use to tell people my surname is 袁?
Just mention a famous person with that surname, e.g.
袁紹 from the Three Kingdoms
袁崇煥, patriot, martyr, and brilliant military commander who was instrumental in repelling the Jurchens for the Ming ...
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7
votes
Usage of 贵方 in real-life conversation
It is very rare to use 贵方 in everyday language. It is almost exclusively used in formal discussions or formal written documents.
贵方 is roughly as polite as 您, or perhaps a bit more so. The main ...
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7
votes
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How are consecutive neutral tones pronounced? What are the pitch levels?
Zhang and Yang (2007:97) has an interesting remark on consecutive neutral tones within certain three-character words (三字組詞):
輕聲若同時出現在三字組詞的後兩個音節上，第二個音節的輕聲調型要根據第一音節的聲調變化，如同二字組的輕聲音節；但第三個輕聲音節一律都讀得短低，調型向下，...
- 5,605
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votes
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What does 就那样吧 mean?
就那样吧 is the same as 也就那样吧 in this case, which is a colloquial phrase, not an idiom.
It means: "just so-so", "it's just ok", "things going just like that".
It conveys her ...
- 24k
5
votes
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How do you say "You mean ...?" to respond to what you don't understand enough?
So how can I express "You mean ...?" in Mandarin, to ask what they mean?
"你的意思是XXX？" means you are making a guess, and asking for a confirmation
If you don't understand a person's single statement, ...
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4
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How do you say "You mean ...?" to respond to what you don't understand enough?
你的意思是...
You mean...
你是在说...
You're trying to say...
我不是很懂你的意思。
I don't really get what you mean.
你想表达什么？
What are you trying to say?
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4
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What does 她是笨蛋的学生 mean?
If the sentence is 她是笨蛋学生 or 她是笨学生, it would mean She is a fool student, but since there is a 的 in between, 笨蛋 is a noun that refers to a person, and not an adjective anymore. So She is the student of ...
- 156
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What’s the difference between 你去干嘛 and 你去吗?
They don't mean the same.
"你去干嘛?" means "What are you going to do?" or maybe "Why are you going?" depending on the context.
"你去吗?" means "Are you going?&...
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4
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Difference between 你好and 你好啊
你好
Usually, we use "你好" to answer "你好". It could be used in any circumstance. It sounds neutral. It's fine to greet anyone using "你好".
你好啊
Compared with "你好", ‘...
- 116
3
votes
What is the most polite way to say "I beg your pardon"?
抱歉，请问您可以重复一遍吗？
Sorry, could you please repeat that?
您 is a courteous version of 你, and should be polite enough in most cases. 陛下 (Your Majesty) is usually used for emperors, and 阁下 (Your Excellency) ...
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What famous word or phrase can I use to tell people my surname is 袁?
Referencing famous names is a good idea. But if it still doesn't work, you might have to describe the radicals.
For example, my surname is 张. I was often asked to clarify whether it's 立-早 章 or 弓-长 张,...
- 24k
2
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Does the convention to paraphrase a word in an article exist in Mandarin?
被逮 could be considered as a short version of 被逮住， meaning 被抓住; be caught; For example, 我被老师逮（住）了， 我考试作弊被逮了(I was caught for cheating in the exam), 他被逮了个正着(meaning he was just caught while he was doing ...
- 24k
2
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Accepted
What is a polite response to 《很高興認識你》？
Use:
我也是很高興認識你。
請多多指教。(I'm not really sure how to translate this phrase.)
能夠認識到你是我的榮幸。 (It's my honour / It's my pleasure to meet you here.) / (I'm delighted to meet you here.)
There's a lot of ...
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Can it be considered rude to start speaking to a stranger in mandarin in a western country?
Let's look at it from "the other side"
When as a foreign student in London in the early 70's, I had a white Londoner trying to engage me in Mandarin, without actually finding out whether I was an ...
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Can it be considered rude to start speaking to a stranger in mandarin in a western country?
Chinese, Japanese and Korean are usually hard to recognize for a normal westerner, and each of these people are unhappy to be taken as another group of people... Even worse, if you take a Southeast ...
- 3,111
2
votes
Accepted
不要说话 vs 不说话 (vs 别说话)
'要' in '不要' cannot be removed, because '不要' is a compound word that mean 'don't'(auxiliary verb) which is different from '不' (adv: not)
不要说话/ 别说话 = Don't talk (demand)
不说话 = 'not speak'
看电影的时候请(不要)...
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2
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Accepted
What is the most polite way to say "I beg your pardon"?
To an emperor: 恕臣愚昧，肯请圣上再次指点一二，臣等万分荣幸。 smth like that
Perhaps： 臣有一事不明, and then continue to ask about some details, etc.
I don't believe there are many historical accounts of such conversations.
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Is it true that the tones of some of the most common words are glossed over in regular speech/turn into neutral tone?
I discussed quasi-neutral tones in the fifth point of my answer to another question here. Salient points include:
Usually, a stress is placed elsewhere in the sentence. Such words (edit: usually ...
- 5,605
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What is the most polite way to say "I beg your pardon"?
This is the People's Republic of China, the Emperor is long since gone!
同志，你能重复一遍吗？
Comrade, could you please repeat that?
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1
vote
Usage of 贵方 in real-life conversation
As the title of your book suggests, much of the words used in it is strictly business jargon. Therefore, it should be expected that many specific phrases aren’t commonly used in real life.
贵方
is a ...
- 11
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Usage of 贵方 in real-life conversation
That is a traditional way of been extremely polite and showing extremely respect to the counterparty, such as "贵方" (means yours, or your side), "贵府" (your home or your office), &...
- 313
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What is the most polite way to say "I beg your pardon"?
望见谅!
I think this is the best choice.
望 means hope, 见谅 get the pardon. 望见谅 it means I do hope that you forgive me.
Hope this can help.
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What is the most polite way to say "I beg your pardon"?
If you intend to ask the person to repeat his word/sentence, the polite way to say is "對不起,可以請你再說一遍嗎?", or "抱歉,可以請你重覆一遍嗎?". Both mean "Sorry, can you please...".
ADD: I'...
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How to use 以 ... 為主grammar?
Both are correct, as they are essentially equal
Your thinking "...the main importance on..." implies there is more than one important thing but this one carries the most weight or mostly ...
- 14.3k
1
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How are consecutive neutral tones pronounced? What are the pitch levels?
All neutral tone characters after the first neutral tone character are pronounced as the first neutral tone character.
Therefore:
真的吗 is 55 2 2
忙着呢 is 35 3 3
好了吗 is 21 4 4
算了吧 is 51 1 1
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1
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Can it be considered rude to start speaking to a stranger in mandarin in a western country?
https://youtu.be/zqDU16SBM9E
I encourage you to watch this dude's videos. He knows a plethora of languages and he's what inspired me to learn Mandarin. Pay attention to the way he interacts with ...
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vote
Accepted
What does it mean to be scratched or scraped?
淺藍(light blue)不(don't)戰爭(war)會(will)被瓜分(be divided)的
戰爭 means war, whereas 戰鬥 is the word to fight. Based on the context it would seem like a typo or a informal slang. The corrected sentence would be ...
- 126
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vote
Accepted
How do I improve Mandarin vocal conversation?
From my personal experience of learning English, if you want to learn how to speak it before learning how to read and write it, it's basically like building a house without any foundations, you will ...
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