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1500 questions
10
votes
6 answers
Where can I find a list of commonly mistaken characters?
I want to quickly identify potential mistakes created by OCR software. Where can I find a list of all Chinese characters that visually look very similar and might often be confused?
Village
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10
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4 answers
How to convert from hanyu pinyin to IPA?
Where can I find a table showing the relation between Hanyu pinyin spelling and IPA for all phonemes in Mandarin?
Village
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10
votes
2 answers
Are there some greetings or phrases particular to the Hui people?
I'm in Yunnan and have noticed lots of Chinese muslims and ate at one of their restaurants today. I was aware of Turkic-speaking muslim ethnic minorities in the far west of China but now I know those people, the Uyghurs, are distinct from the Hui…
hippietrail
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10
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2 answers
Does "坊" also mean "square", "plaza", "piazza" like "广场"?
Where I am in Kunming there is a square that seems to go by two names:
金碧广场, Jīn bì guǎngchǎng, "Golden Square"
金马碧鸡坊, Jīnmǎ bì jī fang, "Golden Horse and Green Rooster Square"
When I look up "square" or "plaza" in English-Chinese dictionaries I…
hippietrail
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10
votes
10 answers
How to translate "暧昧" into English?
Many dictionaries translate it to "ambiguity",but it looks so indefinitely.
I'm looking for more expressive answer.
Haijun Huang
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10
votes
5 answers
Where can I find a downloadable database of English to Chinese words?
CC-CEDICT is a Chinese to English dictionary, available for use online or for download (as a data file here: http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=cc-cedict). What similar projects provide an English to Chinese dictionary, with definitions…
Village
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10
votes
4 answers
Effective and polite way to end a phone conversation
What are some ways that I can let the other speaker know I want to finish a phone conversation and am going to hang up.
I frequently come across as too abrupt. Usually something along the lines of extended pause followed by goodbye.
Leaving the room…
going
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10
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3 answers
Traditional 綫 vs. 線?
I noticed that《汉语大词典》opts for 風景綫 over what most other reference works write as 風景線.
KEY does mention that 綫 is a:
1 (variant of the more commonly used xìan 線) line, thread, wire, string
zisea also seems so say that 线 is:
【綫】的简体字。拼音xian4
zisea…
Mou某
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10
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5 answers
What is the origin of 甩锅 ("to pass the buck")?
I've been hearing 甩锅 (shuǎiguō) used to describe how US president Trump often blames others (currently the WHO). It means "to shift the blame" or "to pass the buck". I'm interested in its etymology.
Baidu Baike and Baidu Zhidao both say it comes…
Becky 李蓓
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10
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5 answers
Some characters look different handwritten and on the computer - how to learn the differences?
I've mainly been learning to read/write Chinese using computer based software as opposed to going to lessons etc.
However, I've realised that there is a small handfull of characters that look different handwritten and on the computer (and sometime…
pyko
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10
votes
3 answers
When should 了 be after the verb and when should it be at the end of the sentence?
In a sentence such as "因为我去面试了，所以我刮了胡子", in one case, 了 is after the sentence, while in the other case it's after the verb, even though in both cases, 了 is used to express the past tense.
So how to know where to put 了?
Are there any rules to…
laurent
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10
votes
4 answers
份, 个, 本, 两: How do they function in these sentences?
I've been working with Rosetta Stone for about 2 weeks now, and due to the immersion (from the start, the entire program is entirely Chinese—no English anywhere), they don't do any explaining of grammatical concepts, they just demonstrate them.
I've…
nickcoxdotme
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10
votes
8 answers
How do I self-answer "What does this say?"
We get a lot of translation requests at Chinese.SE, and while we'd like to help, there's sometimes very little about the Chinese language in the question, and a lot about the procedure for obtaining plaintext from a photo.
Once we have the…
Becky 李蓓
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10
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1 answer
Is it considered as anadiplosis (顶真) when the same character repeats but means differently?
In "顶真", one uses a word near the end of the clause and then repeats that word to begin the next clause. For example, 忽聞海上有仙山，山在虛無縹緲間.
What if the same character repeats but means differently in different clauses? Is it still considered as "顶真"？
For…
Zuriel
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5 answers
When can 把 be used？
I know it switches the order of the verb and object and can be used to place emphasis on the object.
我把东西放在椅子上
And 把 should be used to indicate some kind of change is happening to the object. In the example above the change is in position.
Under…
tao
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