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1500 questions
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8 answers

What is the appropriate response to "Your Chinese is so good!"

A lot of the time, Chinese people will respond to a foreigner speaking Chinese with "wow your Chinese is so good!" What is a polite way to respond without sounding rude or full of yourself? Especially when you have studied Chinese for multiple years…
Jeremy Chapnick
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2 answers

How to say "a beneficial insect"?

I want to be able to say to my son that an insect is beneficial. I know I can use 害虫 for an insect that is harmful, but is there something I can use to say beneficial other than 好虫 which I assume is incorrect.
MisterT
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Are `sh` and `x` really different phonemes, or just different realizations of the same phoneme?

I can't think of any minimal pairs; like shu vs. xu probably shouldn't count as a minimal pair since the vowel is different.
Brennan Vincent
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4 answers

What does "你吃了吗?" mean?

I've been looking at some questions and I found in some of the answers that 你吃了吗 was identified as slang. I would have translated it as "have you eaten?", but I'm not sure since it's slang. I'm learning Mandarin without being in China, so I haven't…
米凯乐
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7 answers

How exactly do time and "tense" work in Mandarin REALLY?

I am trying to figure out what the most proper way for one to say something simple like if someone asked, "How do you know that?" and then I say, "I read it in a book". Now what I'm wondering about is how you translate that "I read a book" clause…
The_Sympathizer
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3 answers

The meaning of 牛气 and 很牛

I have seen one of my language partners use 牛气 and 很牛, but he couldn't explain it to me. The context suggested it meant something like "bullshit" or "you are kidding me", a sign or disbelief, but the dictionaries I tried only suggested literal…
MrVocabulary
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5 answers

What does 多一些 mean?

I'm now chatting with someone from China, and she said the following: A: 你在北京工作吗？我三月去那里。 I: 没有。我去北京市旅游的。我三月在意大利。 A: 你在上海时间多一些吧。 What does the final sentence mean? I understand "if/when you are in Shanghai", but what does 多一些 mean?
Blaszard
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3 answers

Web Developer Vocabulary

I'm looking for a list of vocabulary used for developer / programming terminology, with such terms as "Constructors", " Framework", "DI", "CMS" or other similar words. I found some pages on the IT fields but the terms used are not technical enough…
Mat
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5 answers

这就是台湾，这才是台湾. Cracking the 就 again

Many moons of my struggle with 就 and 就是 maybe finally over. But still I need help from natives and others. There is a book out there with a title: "这就是台湾，这才是台湾" Once I saw that phrase I thought that I have a key for cracking the 就 thing. I,…
coobit
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2 answers

Why is 土著人 used for Aboriginal people in Australia?

In Australia it is quite common to talk about Aboriginal people as they feature quite often when talking about sports, Olympics or politics. The word that is used to describe Aboriginal people by native Chinese speakers is 土著人. I have had someone…
going
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4 answers

斯 vs 这 vs 此 for the meaning "this"?

What are the differences between these three, 斯 vs 这 vs 此, and any other characters or words for "this" in Mandarin Chinese? I'm just a beginner and I've noticed at least these few characters are in my Memrise flashcard courses all with English…
hippietrail
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6
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1 answer

Does tone sandhi apply to 成语

In my previous question I found the following about tone sandhi and yī 'one': yī on its own or not followed by other tones yī → yí when followed by a fourth tone yī → yì when followed by other tones I would like to know if tone sandhi effects the…
going
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3 answers

(女 vs 女): Unicode points U+5973 vs U+F981

I wonder if this is even the right place to ask this question but I couldn't figure another place so here I am. What is the difference between these two characters? If none, then why are there two different unicode code points?
0fnt
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5 answers

Can 有 be used to form present perfect tense?

One meaning of 有 is "have" i.e. possess. Can 有 also be used to form the present perfect tense as in "I have looked", possibly "我有看"? If so, then a follow-up question: what is more natural, using 有 or 过?
DuckMaestro
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3 answers

Media Source for "Natural" Sounding Mandarin Chinese

I've been looking to improve my Chinese pronunciation and listening skills. When looking at most tv dramas and textbook dialogues, however, I can't help but notice that tones and pitches tend to be overpronunced in a way that just sounds very…
Dragonsheep
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