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This is actually not one character, but a stylistic conglomeration of the characters in the phrase 招財進寶, meaning "ushering in wealth and prosperity".
The characters 財 and 寶 end up being represented with the same 貝 component in this "character". While the left side of 招 (扌) and the right side of 財 (才) are technically not the same component, they look similar ...
16
In classical Chinese, most of the words only have one character, for example, "目", "口", "道" (道路, road), "卒" (士兵, soldier)...
One of the big differences between classical Chinese and modern Chinese is that in modern Chinese, most of the one-character words are replaced by words with lots of characters (usually 2).
So both "目" and "口" are not used in spoken ...
16
成 (into) is the result complement of the verb 换(change)
换 = change
换成 = change into
兑换 = exchange
兑换成 = exchange into
兑换 mostly refers to 'currency exchange'
换 can refer to exchange between anything.
In "我把十块美元换成人民币" (I exchanged $10 USD into RMB), '换' is obviously short for '兑换'. You can even replace '换' with '兑' (convert) and write: "...
15
This is more of a history question.
勇 is short for 乡勇, which roughly means "militia". They are temporary soldiers recruited from the local population in times of need, and are usually disbanded soon after. Soldiers wearing 勇 on their uniforms was a Qing dynasty thing though; they stood in contrast to the elite Banner Armies and the professional Green ...
15
For people to understand better...
13
They are purists. In the words of Steven Pinker:
...also known as sticklers, pedants, peevers, snobs, snoots, nitpickers,
traditionalists, language police, usage nannies, grammar Nazis, and
the Gotcha! Gang.
According to this article, 纹身 is accepted by a newer version of 《现代汉语词典》 as an alternative form of 文身.
12
“坏” is a very general word meaning something "useless", but what makes the thing "坏了" has many reasons, and “破了” is one of them, so when something's state is “破了”, you can also say something is “坏了”；However “破” means something is broken or has cracks. So when you describe something that is useless because of inner reasons such as quality, but it still looks ...
12
If you use Facebook, you may know the relationship status It's complicated; the Chinese version is 一言難盡. That said, the phrase is intended be used whenever the situation is complicated, in a good way or in a bad way. On the other hand, despite its intended usage, people often use it for certain feelings or thoughts in disguise, such as when they simply do ...
12
下个星期三 would only refer to Wednesday, next week. There is no way you would use 下个星期三 to refer to Wednesday this week, like the one that is coming two days from now, that would just be 星期三.
There's a question on Baidu Zhidao that, kind of(?), asks this.
下个星期三要多少天?
with answers like:
8天
and
七天
Perhaps Larry David would be disappointed though.
12
It's one of those fixed expressions whose otherwise regular meaning is significantly and conspicuously altered by the modal 了, that introduces change semantics.
The phrase 「你怎么（样）～」 in itself means "How do you...?". If you add a modal 了 signifying change, it becomes：
"How do you... now" (as opposed to before)
...which in an idiomatic ...
11
所...的 and ...的 are different.
Function of ...的
As you have already known, ...的 can construct adjective clause.
(我喜欢)+的+东西
(subject + verb) + 的 + noun = noun + which + subject + verb
And in Chinese, the noun can be omitted in a clear context. In this case, ……的 constructs a noun clause.
我喜欢的（人）是你。 Who I like is you.
(subject + verb) + 的 = what/who + subject ...
11
羡慕 is a good kind of envy.
"You have a happy marriage. I'm really envy at you and I hope you can be happy forever" This is 羡慕.
妒忌 is a bad kind of jealousy.
"You have a happy marriage. You don't deserve it! I should be happier than you!" This is 妒忌.
11
Your sample sentence should be "我在我的手机上听音乐" as ChineseHulu.com said.And you actually SHOULD not omit the word "上" in this sentence,or it would be a little bit weird to native Chinese people.
"在...上" is a preposition phrase.It can be used on representational target like:
在操场上 -- on playground
在沙发上 -- on sofa
And it can be used on abstract target like
在手机上 -...
11
The premise of the question is a bit backwards. It's not that de evolved into three different characters, it's that three different words evolved to have the same pronunciation in modern Mandarin Chinese.
Mandarin in particular, features unstressed syllables, which are commonly referred to as having a "neutral tone" rather than having one of the four main ...
10
I'm a native Chinese speaker.
If you want a cup of coffee, it is okay to say:
我要一杯咖啡
but actually, in most cases, you should say:
我想要一杯咖啡
This is because "想要" is more polite, although "want" means both "想要" and "要" if we directly translate it.
Regarding your question, if you want to tell people that you really want something (or to do something), ...
10
I am pretty sure that you have the second to last character wrong. It makes much more sense as 件 (item). Also, 折 should be read as zhé in this context. The character has a large number of meanings, but in this context it means discount (and the single digit numbers preceding it count by 10%; this is a common idiomatic construction for expressing discounts)....
10
When you want to express possessive relations concerning family members or relatives, you don't need 的.
我妈妈，你爸爸，她男朋友，我们家老大, etc.
I have done some searches with different expressions with and without 的, and I see that this rule is not applied consistently.
EDIT: There are ambiguous cases, e.g. 你们孩子 could mean "You children" or "Your children" (with ...
10
手机上 describes the act is observed by something from outside of the cellphone through the screen. I guess most of the humanity will do this way.
手机里, in contrast, suggests something is really inside the phone, e.g. in memory, storage etc.
So, 手机里的照片 "pictures (stored) on the phone" and 手机上的照片 "pictures (found) on the phone" may indicate the same thing. But ...
10
I guess you just use them the same way as in English.
Look at e.g. this list:
Everything that uses 国际 translates as 'international'. Similarly in this list everything that is 世界 translates as 'world'.
A map that shows all the countries and their GDP (as a choropleth) would be:
世界GDP分布图
In the case of a poverty average, I think you would rather use ...
10
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:
10
There are good explanations on the Web. I do not think I should copy them here. Please check
怎麼
and
怎麼樣.
In addition, there is a good article (pdf format) published by an associate professor, 蔡維天. I copy the abstract here.
本文的題旨在於討論漢語疑問副詞的一個歧義現象：「怎麼」有時可當成「為甚麼」來用，如「她怎麼沒來？」。這種用法主要出現在助動詞之前，應屬句子頂層結構的一種現象。我們認為此處「怎麼」其實是整個句子的述語，問的是這個句子所表達事件的來由。相較之下，位於助動詞和動詞之間的「...
10
In Chinese grammar, words as 什么 are commonly known as interrogative substitutes, they substitute the word that should be found in the answer.
Therefore, they have inherent interrogative semantics, and don't require interrogative particles at the end of the sentence.
For example:
你在吃什么？What are you eating?
我在吃麻婆豆腐 I'm eating "mapo" tofu.
As you ...
9
The differences are well explained on the Chinese Grammar Wiki. It also visualises the overlaps with the following Venn diagram:
A: ability in the sense of “know how to” (会 (huì) is more common than 能 (néng))
B: permission/request (use 能 (néng) or 可以 (kěyǐ))
C: possibility (use 能 (néng) or 可以 (kěyǐ))
D: permission not granted (use 不可以 (bù kěyǐ))
E: ...
9
The answer is a modified citation of this awesome article: The 是 … 的 construction in Mandarin, credit of original article goes to Hugh Grigg (eastasiastudent.net). There are more links around this subject at the bottom of the original article.
That article and this answer are published under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.
Note not everything ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
