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1500 questions
7
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3 answers
Why is Putin translated as 普京 but not 普定?
The translated name is quite different from the original in sound, and it might be attributed to the original sound of the word in the original language-Russian, but the same criterion will not apply to the case of the name of the sitting president…
NanningYouth
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7
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2 answers
What readers are available at the 1,000 word level?
I want to improve my reading and grammar skills by finding interesting things to read. What graded readers, basic textbooks, magazines, and other reading materials are available for adult students who can recognize the first 1,000 words from the…
Village
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7
votes
7 answers
What does "你什么都不是" mean?
Literal translation:
你 - You
什么 - what / who / something / anything
都 - entire / all
不是 - blame
My guess - It's all your fault?
Steve
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7
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3 answers
Why is 吏 (lì) pronounced differently to 史 (shǐ) and 使 (shǐ)?
The pronunciation of 吏 (lì) is frustratingly hard to remember since it's different to two similar-looking characters 史 (shǐ) and 使 (shǐ). Sometimes learning the etymology, and the reason why a character is pronounced a certain way, can make it…
Becky 李蓓
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7
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5 answers
How mobile are adverbs in a Chinese sentence?
In English, adverbs in -ly are often, not always, very mobile in a sentence.
In the sentence, "I ran to the station." if I add "quickly" there are 4 possible places where I can insert "quickly".
Quickly, I ran to the station.
I quickly ran to the…
Pedroski
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7
votes
4 answers
Difference between 我饿了 and 我很饿?
Someone tried to explain the difference in this answer https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/43/38 saying that 我饿了 means "I became hungry", but I don't see the difference because we don't say I became hungry in English, you are either hungry or you…
going
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7
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2 answers
Meaning of 差 in 现在差一刻九点?
I have difficulties understanding sentence.
What is meaning of 差 in the following sentence?
我看一下，现在差一刻九点。
Boris Ivanov
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7
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2 answers
What does 二货朋友 mean?
Another Weibo post. This one has a lot that i dont understand. I think 有天二货朋友看到我的说说 Means “one day two friends said to me..." But that structure is very strange. I would have written 有一天两位朋友对我说。。。is this some kind of slang?
The rest is difficult…
rabbid
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7
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4 answers
Chinese etymology dictionary for words of more than one character
European dictionaries such as the Webster's English Dictionary or the Oxford Dictionary often have detailed etymologies of each word entry, together with dates of oldest attested usage and history of each affix; either this, or the strongest…
KureKotake
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7
votes
2 answers
Doesn't 被 mean "by"?
I've always thought of 被 as "by." I understand the following phrase means "deducted 10 points" but I don't understand the structure.
整整要被扣十分
rabbid
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7
votes
2 answers
What does 大秀香肩美背mean?
Got this off Weibo. What does 大秀香肩美背 mean? Particularly that 大 seems odd there..
【熊乃瑾秀香肩美背 性感造型女人味十足】女星@熊乃瑾xiong 近日在意大利为某杂志拍摄了一组复古时尚大片，大秀香肩美背。
Thank you
rabbid
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7
votes
2 answers
Dot vs. slash in Chinese computer fonts
We have been working with a new character system that differentiates between a dot and a slash in Chinese characters.
The issue I have is being able to instinctively tell which one I should use. When I asked the creators of the system they said it…
Chris Butler
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7
votes
7 answers
What are the answers to the HSK6 语病 ("faulty wording") questions on the 22 publicly available HSK6 exams?
There are 22 publicly available HSK6 exams. Since I'm studying this topic for my upcoming exam, I might as well self-answer the question...
Question: What are the answers to the HSK6 语病 ("faulty wording") questions on the 22 publicly available HSK6…
Becky 李蓓
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7
votes
4 answers
In Dao De Jing, 常 should be translated as "eternal" or as "common"?
I'm doing a translation of the Dao De Jing, using some originals and some translations to english and portuguese. I've noticed that 常 chang is almost always translated as "eternal", "fixed", "immutable", etc. That seems to be a monotheistic…
Rodrigo
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7
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2 answers
"niyao" meaning strong-armer?
A comment on a New York Times article about violence towards doctors in China reads:
The situation is explosive. In 2010 there were 17,234 cases of violence against medical personnel reported by CCTV. Hired thugs
called "niyao" beat up or kill…
rxmnnxfpvg
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