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Why is the traditional character for 你 also 你 and not 儞 when the traditional character for 尔 is 爾?
I found an interesting question posted on Reddit's /r/ChineseLanguage: If 你 is 亻（人） ＋ 尔 , but 尔’s tradicional version is 爾 , shouldn’t 你’s traditional version be 儞 ?? I don't know the answer so I thought I'd re-ask it here. Some answers given…
Becky 李蓓
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Why are there different pronunciations of 复杂？
During a Chinese class, a student pronounced 复杂 as fu3za2, instead of the official pronunciation fu4za2. The Chinese teacher corrected the student but then mentioned many native speakers pronounce it as fu3za2 as well, particularly in the south or…
雪花飘飘
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Relation between「帳」and「賬」
「賬」is said to be a derivative character (分化字) of「帳」, itself being a derivative character of「張」. The meaning of「帳」is related to tents, screens, or curtains:
《玉篇》帷也，張也，幬也。
「賬」has meanings relating to accounts, bills, and debt, but I don't quite see…
wang_xiao_ming
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Are there loanwords from Portuguese used in Macau Cantonese?
I'd like to know if there are some words from Macau Cantonese that are from Portuguese. As HK Cantonese has some words from English, I think Macau also can have some words. Thank you for any examples you can give.
I'm sorry for bothering you with…
Alberto Ribeiro
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Is there an ancient chinese name for Asia?
The Chinese word for Asia is 亞細亞 (yaxiya).
The root of these words seems to be the greek word "Asia", derived from the Akkadian "asu" which means "to rise".
Thus, Asia is the land of the rising sun. But this only has meaning if Asia is seen from the…
Bao
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Can I use 我的上一辈子 when talking about an earlier part of my life which I almost don't recognize as mine anymore?
Context: I posted a photo on WeChat of an event that happened a long long time ago to me. I was living a completely different life back then. Different country, job, I was much younger etc. It's surreal looking at the photo as it's just hard to…
Kantura
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Can an adverb modify another adverb in Chinese?
I was wondering if an adverb in Chinese can be used to modify another adverb. I looked some resources but I could not find it. For example, in Adverb in resources.allsetlearning, they just say "Adverbs are words that modify verbs and…
Puco4
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Is there an idiomatic way to express 乱说 or 胡说八道 in an elegant way?
Essentially, let's say that during a polite conversation, I want to remark that someone 乱说 / 胡说八道 “talks rubbish", without sounding inelegant or unrefined (没素质).
What's a good euphemism, a chengyu or some other idiomatic way that elegantly gets the…
blackgreen
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Why is 饰界 used to mean "hinges" in a 1908 book?
I've got this translation here:
The door turns on its hinges.
门靠着饰界转
I'm assuming 饰界 matches up with hinges. It's not a word I've encountered before or that's readily searchable online. The translation is old; 1908. The book also looks…
Mou某
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Percent: 成 vs 百分之
Is there any difference between 成 and 百分之 when it comes to telling about percentage? I've just encountered 成 for the first time and started wondering.
musialmi
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3 answers
What is the fastest method to type Chinese using a computer?
I know that there are numerous Chinese input methods such as Pinyin, Bopomofo, 區位碼, Wubi method, Cangjie (Tsang-chieh) input method and many other methods. But once mastered, on average which input method will be the fastest one?
I belive this…
Zuriel
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Request for a 成语 to describe a person with all of 貌, 才, and 德
We can use 才貌双全 to describe a person with both 貌 and 才 and 德才兼备 to describe a person with both 才 and 德.
Does there exist a 成语 that describes a person with all of the three?
Terry Li
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Why in the multiplication table, different characters such as 如，得，歸，中 are used?
It seems to me that the following rules apply:
When the answer is a one-digit number, the character 如 is used.
When the answer is 10, the character 得 is used.
When the answer is a multiple of 10, other than 10 itself, the word 中 is used.
When it…
Zuriel
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What function does the「」-shaped component have in characters like「」and「傷」?
戰國文字有從「人」和「昜」而成的「傷」字，但現代標準楷體的「傷」字與其結構有所不同；它含有一個「」形的部件。「傷」被釋爲從「人」，「」省聲的字（與說文解字的解釋一樣）：
《說文》：「創也。从人，省聲。」
煕康字典卻有以下的條目：
《康熙字典》：【說文】同。
若「」與「」有異體關係，那「」在「」、「傷」、「殤」、「觴」等字當中有何職能？
wang_xiao_ming
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Meaning of 白 in words for "nonsense"?
There are a number of Chinese words containing the 白 character that all mean "nonsense" or "speaking nonsense":
白呼
夸白
白话
What's the significance of 白 in these words? 白 usually means "white", "clear" or "plain", so how did it become associated with…
congusbongus
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