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1500 questions
19
votes
6 answers
When is it appropriate to address a lady as 先生？
Chairman Mao addressed Soong Ching-ling as 宋庆龄先生. Yang Jiang was also addressed as 杨绛先生 by the public. My dad used to tell me to address some of his female colleagues as 先生 too.
I wonder why a lady can be addressed as 先生. Does this 先生 have the same…
Terry Li
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19
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2 answers
Are 乒 and 乓 used in classical chinese?
乒乓 is the modern word for ping pong, based around onomatopoeia (and similarity to 兵 for phonetic element) and, as some people claim, shape. I was wondering if this shape explanation is true, or little more than a folk etymology of the word.
That is…
sqrtbottle
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19
votes
13 answers
Are there word games in Chinese?
Do Chinese characters make it a lot harder to create or play word games in Chinese than it is in English? I have seen a few Chinese crosswords, but it seems like they aren't as densely cross-linked as English ones usually are. (In the few that I've…
Don Kirkby
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18
votes
7 answers
Why is it written LIU in Pinyin, when there's clearly an O sound?
Does anybody know why this decision was made in pinyin, about not writing any hint of the sound /o/ in liu, instead of writing something like liou or liow ?
The first reaction of any newcomer to Chinese, and also, non-Chinese speakers, is to say…
Petruza
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18
votes
12 answers
Is there a difference between 愿意 and 肯?
Is there a difference between 愿意 and 肯 in the following sentence?
"Are you willing to go to China for work?" being translated to one of the two?
你愿不愿意去中国工作？
你肯不肯去中国工作？
user5720
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18
votes
3 answers
Characters which have several different shapes
For those who might not read the question fully: this not about simplified vs traditional characters. While the traditional and simplified version of a character can be considered the same, they at least have different code points, and I am well…
Szabolcs
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18
votes
7 answers
What is the glyph origin of '奇'?
Lost Glyph Origin
奇 ( jī | qí ) is a character that means strange but the glyph origin appears to have been lost. At least as far as I can tell after researching offline books, zhongwen.com, and zdict.net ( qí ). The character is composed of (dà)…
Tommie C.
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18
votes
2 answers
What is the difference between 总是 and 一直?
I've always (no pun intended) wondered what the difference is between the two words. I thought they both meant always, but I've never quite grasped in what context they should be used.
Could anyone shed any light on this?
jaffa
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18
votes
2 answers
How does Wikipedia's simplified to traditional converter work?
The relationship between simplified and traditional characters can be a headache for organizations using both orthographies.
"A number of surveys, such as [Xiandai 1986], have demonstrated that
the 2000 most frequent SC characters account for…
magnetar
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18
votes
2 answers
How do native speakers structure their essays?
When analyzing Chinese speeches or essays, I often have difficulty understanding how their the authors organized their ideas.
In North America, for example, a common template for writing an essay is the five-paragraph essay. This organizes the…
Village
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18
votes
11 answers
What etymology dictionaries are available?
What dictionaries (online, software-based or in paper form) explain the origins of a word and its evolution over time? E.g. how the character was once written, how the usage – and the meaning – changed over time.
Village
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18
votes
5 answers
Is there a rule of thumb for distinguishing male and female names in Chinese?
I often get tripped up when reading names of Chinese people, and trying to work out if they are male or female. Is there a good rule of thumb to follow to determine which is which?
Ciaocibai
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18
votes
7 answers
Addressing women as "小姐" in Northern China
I heard that it is not appropriate to call women or girls "小姐" in northern China. That it is considered rough and has a meaning close to "hooker".
So I never address girls or women as "小姐" in the north and even when I am in Shanghai or even further…
Denis Kucherov
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18
votes
2 answers
How do non-native speakers get to perceive tones in Chinese?
Recently I've been teaching an English-speaking friend some basics about Chinese, but inevitably he got stuck with the tones. I've demonstrated to him the 4 tones with audio files, yet it seems hard for him to distinguish between them. (That being…
Nihil
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18
votes
4 answers
Is this an exception in the use of 的?
I know that, when expressing possessives, we add 的 to the usual personal pronouns, such as 我的.
However, in a question in my grammar textbook I saw:
你爸爸忙吗? = Is your father busy?
Why not "你的爸爸忙吗？"?
Are there any other exceptional or particular uses…
Alenanno
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