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What is the difference between 时候 and 时间?

When I want ask someone When will you eat?, can I use 你吃什么时间 (ni3 chi1 shen2me shi2jian1)? I used to see sentences using 时候 to ask for the time. What is the difference?
Agoeng Liu
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Special meanings applied to numbers 0 - 10

From what I understand: 4 or 四 means death 8 is similar to 发 as in 发财 9 is somehow related to the emporer or is the emporer's number Can someone please provide the meanings (if they exist) for each of the different numbers 0 - 10?
going
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When should you use 尽管 (jǐnguǎn) instead of 虽然 (suīrán)?

虽然 and 尽管 can both be translated as "despite" and "although". I've been familiar with 虽然 for a longer time already but I recently came across 尽管 for the first time. Is 尽管 a more formal or poetic term? In what contexts would you use 尽管 rather than…
Bjorn
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What is the best way to teach a child Mandarin?

My son is almost 8 weeks old. I don't speak Mandarin (yet, currently in progress) and am looking for ways to start him on learning Mandarin early, maybe at about 1 year of age. What is the best way to go about doing this?
N_A
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Which website/service can give good example sentences in Chinese?

Often when learning new words, I want to see them in context. It helps my learning process, and understanding how to properly use new vocab makes it stick in my mind that much more. Does anyone have any good suggestions for a site where I can enter…
Ciaocibai
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When and why is right to left writing used?

I have encountered characters written horizontally right to left on signs (at the top of a gate) and on vehicles. When is this used and why? Was this more common in the past? Are the individuals characters ever mirrored (e.g. "b" versus "d")? Is…
Village
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How to translate: 人是铁，饭是钢，一顿不吃烦得慌. What is the logic?

人是铁，饭是钢，一顿不吃烦得慌 I can not really figure out to translate this sentence. I guess it basically means that not eating is a bad thing. The first sentences - do they indicate that "iron" and "steel" belongs together, and so does "man" and "food", and it…
miree
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Character Pronunciation Clues

Is there any way to know what a character's pronunciation or tone is, based on the strokes or radicals that make up the characters?
Cocowalla
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What is a polite way to ask "may I ask who is speaking?"

A man I don't know calls me and starts talking to me in Chinese. All is fine, except I don't know who he is. I sense I'm not the person he's looking for. How do I ask who he is without being too blunt: "你是誰?"
cyanos
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Very frequently used word in Mandarin that sounds like "nica" or "nigah"

I work in a group where I am the only person that does not speak Chinese, thus I hear Chinese conversations all day every day. I've noticed that there's a word which is used extremely frequently, in almost every sentence, sometimes 2 - 3 times per…
Hack-R
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How were Chinese characters taught to Chinese children before the introduction of pinyin?

Before schools started to use pinyin for teaching characters to Chinese children, how and/or what was used to teach it instead? And what about how dictionaries showed the pronunciation of characters?
小太郎
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How to pronounce "下载"

How to pronounce the word "下载", "xià zǎi" or "xià zài"？ Most Chinese people pronounce it "xià zǎi", but there are some people insist on pronouncing it "xià zài". There are different also different pronunciations in different dictionaries. The…
SEIAROTg
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What do Chinese people do if they forget how to write a character?

I've heard that character amnesia is becoming more and more common. What if a Chinese has to write something and he doesn't have a cellphone or computer with him, what does he do if he forgot the character he needed? Does he use another character…
Kenjo
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The origins of "AA制"

Every since I learned the expression AA制*, I have been curious as to its origins. The morphology seems clear enough: AA + 制(定) = "to draw up (the bill) in an AA way". What is not clear is how AA acquired the meaning of "evenly" or something like…
Stumpy Joe Pete
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What is the difference between 裡, 裏 and 里?

I grew up learning simplified Chinese characters, but we are now living in Hong Kong, and so I need to teach my children traditional Chinese characters. I can't seem to figure out the difference between these three characters 裡, 裏 and 里. In…
I Like to Code
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