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1500 questions
5
votes
2 answers
How do you say "To take a gap year"?
Is there a clear translation for the phrase "Take a gap year" (i.e. take a year off between your last year of high school and college (often for travel, work, etc.))?
Stephen
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5
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7 answers
Can you 伤害 a person emotionally?
Can I say “伤害人” in terms of hurting someone emotionally? Or is there another, better, way of saying this?
For example, I'd like to say
"最后还为了伤害他把这个秘密告诉给其他的家人"
Is that a proper usage?
Stephen
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5
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what does it mean when you use "作“ as a measure word for people?
What does it mean when you use "作" as a measure word for people ? for example, in 沈从文‘s 《丈夫》 I read the line 都使这作丈夫的想起了村长同乡绅那些大人物的威风
Is 作 different from 位？
Stephen
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5
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2 answers
What's the difference between Classical Chinese and Modern Chinese?
What I mean by difference is its grammatical difference. How is Classical Chinese grammatically different from today's Chinese? Is modern Chinese's golden rule similar or equivalent to some rules in Classical?
If someone would lead me to a page or…
YoungerDryas
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What is the correct way to write 'niu bi', and how did it get its meaning in Chinese?
'niu bi' (牛逼? like the bees knees in English) is one of the more amusing expressions I learnt in my time in China. The literal meaning in English is quite colourful, so I won't describe it here, but I'm curious to know more about this term.
What is…
Ciaocibai
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5
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6 answers
What's the difference between 打开 and 开门?
How can I tell when to use 打开 and when to use 开门 in Chinese? For example, in the following sentences:
这扇门打开了
这个书店开门了
Why does the first sentence use 打开 and the latter use 开门?
Also, is it necessary to use 了 in this sentence?
Blaszard
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5
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3 answers
Zhuyin IME setting to make tones optional
When I type Chinese via a Pinyin IME, I can write "nihao" to get "你好". Writing out "ni3hao3" is not required.
But when I try to write "ㄋㄧㄏㄠ", the IME interprets this as "ㄏㄧㄠ". Basically I'm forced to type out the tone for every single character:…
Dan Cecile
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3 answers
difference between 伤痕， 伤疤 and 疤痕？
Recently, I read that someone's 额头上有一个伤痕 。 I knew that the sentence literally meant that there was a scar. But then I thought "Why didn't they say "伤疤” or “疤痕”。 All three of these translate to scar in english, is there any simple way to divide…
Stephen
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5
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Is there a difference between 教训 and 论点 ？
I'm taking a history class in Chinese and my teacher brought up 四五运动的两个教训 。 Then later on he talked about 启蒙的两个论点 。 I know that roughly 教训 is translated as "lessons" and 论点 is a bit more like "thesis, or arguments" - but could someone make this…
Stephen
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5
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3 answers
Complement of result:完 or 好
I‘m currently learning how to form the complement of result and what are the translations of some common compound verbs. My book makes this examples:
• 看完=to finish watching
• 写好=to finish writing
• 吃好=to finish eating(with satisfaction)
• 学好=to…
Chiara
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5
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2 answers
Which expression do native speakers actually use: Chinese New Year or Spring Festival (or other)?
In relation to the Chinese New Year (or Spring Festival) I've heard different names, as you can see from what I just wrote.
In Chinese we have:
春節 / 春节 = Spring Festival
Chūn jié
農曆新年 / 农历新年 = Chinese New Year
Nóng lì xīn nián
or simply (more…
Alenanno
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3 answers
How to say "Next time" in the past tense?
I'm a bit confused on how to use the expression "The next time" in chinese.
I originally wrote
(after going to Kigali for the first he realized there were no ethiopian restaurants)
于是， 他下次回基加利时， 就决定开这个餐厅。
But my friend told me that a better way of…
Stephen
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5
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1 answer
道 vs 途 in religious texts
As we all know, 道 is an important concept in classical Chinese, meaning "the way" in the metaphorical sense. It is a central concept in Taoism, but it was also used in Buddhism and Confucianism to designate the proper attitude, habits and…
米好 '-'
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2 answers
How to translate belief?
I'm trying to write this in Chinese:
"Knowledge is a subset of true beliefs."
But I can't find a proper word for "beliefs."
Notice that 信仰 is faith. Faith has religious connotations; belief is neutral.
George Chen
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3 answers
Does the Chinese language distinguish "doubt" and "suspicion"?
Doubt expresses a lack of belief due to insufficient evidence.
Suspicion expresses a feeling of belief in the absence of evidence.
If I'm not mistaken, the Chinese language does not distinguish the two.
George Chen
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