Chinese Language Stack Exchange
Chinese Language Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [mandarin]

Question specifically about the Mandarin dialect. (Not for arbitrary questions that happen to involve Mandarin.)

Mandarin is one of the most spoken languages in the world with over 837 millions of native speakers.

It is a group of dialects, mostly from the north to the south-west China. Its standard pronunciation is the dialect of Beijing. It is also known in China as 普通话 putonghua or 'the standard language'.

Taiwan refers to it as 國語 guoyu, 'the national language', whereas in Southeast Asian Chinese communities such as those in Singapore and Malaysia it is common to hear 华语 huayu or 'the language of the Chinese (华人 huaren)'.

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Do all schools in China teach in Standard Chinese (普通话)?

When I went to China, it was apparent that many (sometimes most) people still spoke their local dialects instead of Standard Chinese/Putonghua (also known as "Mandarin" in English). I was told that because older people didn't know Putonghua,…
Orion
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Difference between 更好 and 比较好?

I'm confused about the difference between 更好 and 比较好. Since both seem to mean "better", how are these used differently? In what cases would you use them?
Sauce McBoss
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How much did the Cultural Revolution change the Chinese language on the mainland?

I've always had an inkling that the Cultural Revolution drastically changed the Chinese language (think: TW 国语 vs. mainland 普通话). [Some even claim TW doesn't even have the concept of 书面语 pk 口语, it's not hard to buy into either]. Then today I came…
Mou某
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Is there any other language intelligible to Mandarin Chinese speakers?

Can native speakers of Mandarin Chinese readily understand speakers of neighbouring regions such as Korea, Japan, Mongolia, or Canton? Are Mandarin Chinese and any of these languages mutually intelligible?
Centaurus
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Is Putonghua Mandarin Chinese or is it standard Mandarin Chinese?

This is driving me crazy. I've always thought that Mandarin was the common language of China and Putonghua was the term use to express this language spoken with standard pronunciation. I've often heard speakers of Mandarin tell me that they can't…
Kantura
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Methods/resources for improving formal/business Chinese?

I'm returning to China early next year to manage a business, and will be dealing with a variety of Chinese clients in that environment. I want to ensure my formal/business Chinese skills are up to scratch, but I'm not sure what the best way to do…
Ciaocibai
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How to say 'protect x from y'?

In my routine HSK vocab study, I recently came upon the word 保护； to protect. Obviously, it works easily like any other verb in statements simply of protection, but I have no idea how to translate the concept of protecting one party from another. For…
s-cat-z
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How to say, “In Chinese" in Chinese

If I want to tell someone they can speak to me in Chinese, how can I say it? My guess is: 你可以给我说用中文 Is this correct, and is there any other way to say it, for example using the 把 structure (i.e. 你可以把中文给我说)。 Is this correct???
salamander
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屌丝" seems to be a "dirty word" but also accepted and openly used. Am I missing something?

Since 屌 means "genitals" and 丝 means "hair", 屌丝 basically means "pubes". But then Mandarin speaking audiences seem to accept and openly use this dirty word. What am I missing? If it's a dirty word like it seems to be why doesn't it get censored /…
Ave Maleficum
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Irregular syllables in Mandarin—how does 二 ("èr") exist?

So Mandarin has a pretty regular syllable construction. Usually, it's consonant-vowel. It cheats a little sometimes in a few ways, like ending on an n or an r or beginning with a w or a y and pronouncing the glide in such a way that it sounds…
Alex Mau
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Mandarin: when do you use 那麼 vs 這麼?

In Mandarin, when do you use 那麼 vs 這麼? In Cantonese, there isn't this issue since you just use 噉.
Crashalot
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Chinese frequency counter text analyser

Can you recommend tool where I can import text and get result list with words according their frequency in text. Aim to import Chinese subtitles learn most frequent words and then watch movie.
Boris Ivanov
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How to say, someone is less (adj) than someone else?

How do I say, He is less cool than I?
Guest1
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Construct: X都不X一下, Mandarin?

I've come across the following construct recently: X 都不 X 一下 Specifically what I heard was: 痒都不痒一下 (Bonus points to anyone who knows where that comes from...) Is this a mandarin construct? Can X be replaced with any verb?
Mou某
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Would this make sense when approaching a customer? 你需要帮助吗? 好的, 如果你需要某物, 告诉我

Let's say the customer is shopping in a furniture store and they only speak Chinese. If I approached & said 你需要帮助吗? 好的, 如果你需要某物, 告诉我. would it sound natural? (Assuming tones/etc are good). Basically I'm trying to say: Hello, do you need any help? If…
Adrift
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