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1500 questions
10
votes
1 answer
Politeness in referring to a recent death
Some people in the US normally avoid saying a person has "died." They say the person "passed on," or "has left us." Are there similar, gentle ways in Chinese to avoid saying a person died? Would it generally seem rude among friends to just say…
Colin McLarty
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2 answers
Glyph origin of 我 - How did 我's radicals 手 and 戈 create the meaning of 我?
Tell me, please, how do 我's radicals 手 and 戈 create the meaning of 我 (ie: I)?
I know that 戈's pictogram (象形) means a rake-like tool or weapon, borrowed for sound to mean "me" (note 'Oracle bone script')." But then how did "rake-like tool or…
Igor Medintsov
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10
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2 answers
What is considered to be the most difficult sound for native English speakers to pronounce?
When I was first learning Chinese, I found the e4 - 饿 & ü3/ü4 - 女/绿 sounds to be the most problematic.
Has there been any research into this? If so, what sounds are generally the most problematic sounds for an initially monolingual English speaker…
Michael Robinson
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3 answers
How many syllables does Chinese have?
I'm just reading a book about China and Chinese customs from Heike Barai. She says that Chinese only has around 300 different syllables, whereas modern German has about 10 000 and I suppose English is about the same.
Does Chinese really only have…
Pedroski
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10
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1 answer
What's the difference between 同样 and 一样
I'm so confused about this two phrases, I think they can be used interchangeably in most circumstances, but here's the examples:
他们两个长得一样。
Why can't we say 他们两个长得同样?
妈妈点了一杯咖啡，我也一样。
Why can't we say 妈妈点了一杯咖啡，我也同样?
他认识我，同样，我也认识他。
Why can't we say…
Kathy Tang
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10
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2 answers
What is the nuance of 很好?
Beginning textbooks say 很好 means "very good," but soon add that 很 is usually just there to balance the phrase and does not really mean "very" in this context. S.Rhee's comment cites a much fuller explanation of this grammatical point.
Can 很好 be…
Colin McLarty
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10
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10 answers
What is the Chinese equivalent of English idiom "As if!"?
The English idiom "as if!" is used to express the speakers rejection that something is possible:
A: "In a few years I'll be driving a Ferrari."
B: "As if you'll ever have a Ferrari!"
Here, B, does not believe it is possible that A will ever own…
jsj
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10
votes
1 answer
What do the Symbols ◒ and ◓ Signify In Old Chinese Poetry Books?
I recently bought an old manual of how 詞 (classical lyric) are supposed to be "filled". The pages look like this:
Naturally am curious about the meaning of the circle symbols next to each characters and suspect they are related to classical "平／仄"…
Master Sparkles
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votes
4 answers
How to pronounce 儿 in conjunction with other characters
The textbook I'm reading now has liberal sprinklings of the 儿 character suffixing words that I have not previously seen suffixed.
For example: 空儿。
How should this be pronounced? Are there any rules of thumb for pronouncing the 'er' in cases where…
Phil Gan
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10
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2 answers
How Recent Is the Divergence In Taiwan- and PRC-Accented Mandarin Speech?
Many have compared the differences in standard (news broadcaster) accents in of Taiwan 國語 and PRC 普通话 to the differences in British and American accents. What linguistic factors have contributed to the divergence in these accents (particularly,…
Master Sparkles
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10
votes
1 answer
"惡" vs "噩" vs "厄"
I have seen these three characters forming the "same" words (I cannot think of a better way to phrase this), such as
惡夢 vs 噩夢
and
惡運 vs 噩運 vs 厄運
As I tried googling for the difference, I find different opinions on their meaning/usage – some…
Thomas Hsieh
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10
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5 answers
A Complex Chinese Character (Characters Identified: 招財進寶)
I randomly saw this character on the blog a while ago and saved a image of it as shown below.
Is this even a character? If so, what does it mean? When is it used? What was the origin of it? How do you pronounce it?
I apologize for throwing lots of…
Thomas Hsieh
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10
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2 answers
Syntax of 'Number Number MeasureWord'
What are the rules governing expressions such as 七八成 (seventy or eighty percent) or 一两个 (one or two)? Must the numerals be monosyllables? What are the restrictions on the measure words? Can there be at most two numerals?
jogloran
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10
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3 answers
What does 'duang' mean in 'online Chinese'?
I see this word popping up on Weibo and Taobao. It's not written with any character, but spelled out in Pinyin. What does it mean?
EDIT:
For the annals:
imrek
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11 answers
Is 我妈妈 or 我的妈妈 more natural?
The possessive particle 的 is often dropped when I see an expression like this, especially when referring to a family member (such as in this case). Which is more natural in casual conversation and are both correct by grammatical standards?
Bubblegum Jinxy
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