Stack Exchange
log in sign up chat discuss faq users badges

Area 51 » Culture

definition commitment beta
145
followers

Chinese Language

Launched Q&A site for students, teachers, and linguists wanting to discuss the finer points of the Chinese language.

Announcements

6  
New users, please check out some of the other Stack Exchange sites to increase your reputation. – xiaohouzi79 Aug 16 '11 at 2:00

3
votes
0
answers

Is it encouraged to discuss topics related to Literary Chinese(文言文) here?

dec 13 '11 at 14:00 Huang 201
33
votes
3
answers

Will the Chinese Language site allow for questions to be asked completely in Chinese?

nov 2 '11 at 19:41 Community♦ 1
12
votes
2
answers

Does our proposal “Chinese Language” have enough momentum to result in a rapid commit phase?

oct 19 '11 at 6:06 Matthew Rudy 166
5
votes
2
answers

Make proposal definition more friendly to beginners

aug 10 '11 at 15:09 Community♦ 1

discuss this proposal

60 Example Questions (7 closed)

active newest votes
up vote 23 down vote
Why are "Peking" and "Beijing" two different names for the same place?
added by Chris W. Rea Jun 19 '10 at 0:29
link
2  
Why voted as off-topic? This question certainly does pertain to Chinese language, in particular the different romanization methods that have been used over the years to make names Western-friendly. "Peking" was based on the Wade-Giles system, and "Beijing" on the more recent Pinyin. – Chris W. Rea Jun 21 '10 at 1:05
This is a good and relevant question. – Steve Kuo Jun 21 '10 at 16:38
Peking is used long ago, in modern english you should say Beijing. – Xiè Jìléi Aug 17 '10 at 8:06
This is on topic as long as you can still see Peking around, e.g. in Peking Duck. – Geoffrey Zheng Sep 21 '10 at 6:30
up vote 22 down vote
How do you convey sarcasm in Chinese?
added by Moak Jul 11 '10 at 17:26
link
up vote 21 down vote
How many different types of measure words are there?
added by zephyr Jun 19 '10 at 1:52
link
Perfect question. Simple, directed, to the point, and may have multiple answers. – ixtmixilix Jul 31 '10 at 22:02
2  
And what is the measure word for measure words? ;-) – Thilo Oct 19 '10 at 1:07
Questions that can be answered with a Google search are not a good example in my opinion. – Coltin Apr 19 '11 at 19:20
up vote 20 down vote
How can you type Chinese characters on a computer?
added by googletorp Jun 17 '10 at 7:32
link
up vote 20 down vote
What are the common parts and history of the Chinese and Japanese written languages? What are the differences?
added by Chris W. Rea Jun 19 '10 at 0:33
link
up vote 13 down vote
What are some differences between Shaanxi dialect and putonghua?
added by Douglas S. Stones Jun 21 '10 at 1:07
link
Yes, this is the kind of stuff people need to be asking. – ixtmixilix Jul 31 '10 at 22:03
1  
I think this is way too broad. My wife speaks a dialect and I could write a novel on the differences between one dialect and putonghua. You would also be making some sweeping generalisations if you only picked a few things. – xiaohouzi79 Feb 8 '11 at 2:21
up vote 12 down vote
What is a good online resource to learn Chinese?
added by David McDavidson, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Apr 17 '11 at 18:18
link
This is a question that I can see coming up often. When trying to learn a language it's always great to have an arsenal of online resources at your disposal. – Luser Sep 9 '10 at 17:32
Likely to come up and tolerated on the site so not clearly off topic, but should not be the focus, so not a good on-topic example. – Caleb Apr 12 '11 at 12:49
up vote 10 down vote
How can I get better at reading hand writing? Are there fonts that look like it, or web sites with examples for practice?
added by Don Kirkby Sep 29 '10 at 20:03
link
I have this exact same problem! I'd love to hear what the community had to say about this. – Ciaocibai Jan 27 '11 at 22:03
up vote 9 down vote
What is the difference in meaning of the characters 做 and 作, as frequently used in Standard Mandarin. They appear to have similar meanings.
added by jsk Nov 7 '10 at 16:06
link
up vote 8 down vote
What are Pinyin and Zhuyin and how are they different?
added by Chris W. Rea Jun 19 '10 at 0:26
link
I also think it's too basic. You can look this up on wikipedia. – ixtmixilix Jul 31 '10 at 21:52
up vote 7 down vote
The majority of characters in Chinese include a semantic and a phonetic element. How can I identify the semantic and the phonetic element?
added by Edle Nov 21 '10 at 2:50
link
up vote 6 down vote
How many tones are there in Cantonese, nine or eleven?
added by Master Of Disaster Jun 17 '10 at 8:19
link
1  
Too basic. Even if it's controversial, you can look it up on wikipedia and read about it there. MO/SO are about people not wasting their time by digging for an answer they may not be able to find on the internet. – ixtmixilix Jul 31 '10 at 21:51
up vote 6 down vote
How do you greet people in Minnnan (hokkien) dialect?
added by Lars Andren Jun 23 '10 at 3:14
link
Dead on Otaku! You're learning fast. – Lars Andren Jul 12 '10 at 1:23
1  
I think dialectical Chinese questions are fine. If you haven't been to China, you haven't seen that 99% of Chinese people don't speak xiandai hanyu. What we call 'Mandarin' is something of a misnomer -- there are as many flavors of 'Mandarin' as there are mispronunciations of the word 'shi' or 'chi'... Sichuanese is/isn't a flavor of Mandarin. It's controversial. But there is only one xiandai hanyu, because there is one written standard. Why rule out the dialects? Someone who's in China will find they really need to know something about them. – ixtmixilix Jul 31 '10 at 22:01
I think if you don't allow dictionary type questions for putonghua why allow them for a dialect? Rather than having a 1000 questions asking how do I say this or that in a dialect, have a single question asking 'where can I find an online resource to learn dialect [x]' – xiaohouzi79 Feb 8 '11 at 2:26
up vote 6 down vote
Can you recommend software to help me get the tones right?
added by Anthony Labarre Jan 9 '11 at 13:13
link
up vote 5 down vote
What are the common cuss words or swear words in Mandarin, in common use today near Taipei, Taiwan?
added by Chris W. Rea Jun 19 '10 at 0:31
link
Too localised.. – xiaohouzi79 Feb 8 '11 at 2:27
up vote 5 down vote
What are some accepted stroke orders for [x] character?
added by ixtmixilix Jul 31 '10 at 21:42
link
This is the thing I've focused on the most since I started learning Chinese. It would have really helped me to be able to ask this when I started out. I also think it's technical enough to merit an overflow style Q/A format, since some characters have several accepted stroke orders, and every char. that differs in trad./simplified has at least two anyway, which may be vastly different since Taiwanese and HK stroke order differ vastly with regard to certain shapes... so potentially this Q has 5-6 acceptable answers, making it perfect for MO/SO-style formats. – ixtmixilix Jul 31 '10 at 22:11
Yes, but would you really want the site full of hundreds of questions about stroke order for each character when you only practically need to learn one type of stroke order for every character and this can be learnt with practice. That means an answer to a single character is not going to provide you with any insight in the long run. – xiaohouzi79 Feb 11 '11 at 3:19
This is the same as asking 1000 different questions about how a particular character looks in each handwriting script. It looks 'cool', but it's not beneficial. – xiaohouzi79 Feb 11 '11 at 3:21
up vote 4 down vote
What are the Cantonese words which have no written form?
added by Master Of Disaster Jun 17 '10 at 8:20
link
This is great, but all Cantonese words have written forms nowadays -- people use them in chat programs and SMS. – ixtmixilix Jul 31 '10 at 22:08
up vote 4 down vote
What is the meaning of '錙銖'? [closed]
added by KennyTM Jun 19 '10 at 20:22
link

closed as off topic by Douglas S. Stones, random, Don Kirkby, Luser, Geoffrey Zheng Sep 21 '10 at 6:34

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

— should this site allow "Checking the dictionary" questions? – KennyTM Jun 19 '10 at 20:23
I wouldn't want it to... perhaps list a bunch of online dictionaries in the FAQ, and point to that (answers will be copy/pasted from dictionaries anyway). However, you can expect to get many of these questions and perhaps it's less complicated just to answer them and move on, then stir up trouble closing questions. – Douglas S. Stones Jun 20 '10 at 23:44
as far as not too many too trivial vocabulary questions pop up, this is a perfectly valid one. after all, neither wikipedia nor dict.leo.org appear to know this term. – flow Jun 23 '10 at 17:56
Any decent Chinese dictionary has this, or even just google then translate. If you don't know any Chinese you wouldn't be checking this phrase anyway. – Geoffrey Zheng Sep 21 '10 at 6:37
up vote 4 down vote
What is the meaning of [x] classical particle, and does that meaning differ in xiandai hanyu (standard written putonghua)?
added by ixtmixilix Jul 31 '10 at 21:41
link
1  
What's classical particle? – Geoffrey Zheng Sep 21 '10 at 15:18
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_chinese_grammar – ixtmixilix Sep 27 '10 at 11:20
Thanks. As an engineer I tend to think of things electrons and neutrons when I see "classical particle". – Geoffrey Zheng Sep 27 '10 at 14:14
up vote 4 down vote
How important is it to use the different ta (他,她,它,祂,牠) characters properly? Do readers still understand 他 as a catch-all, or is that usage dated?
added by Mr. Shiny and New 安宇 Jan 7 '11 at 19:57
link
up vote 4 down vote
Are there any additional useful techniques to remember characters besides writing them over and over again?
added by Anthony Labarre Jan 9 '11 at 13:16
link
up vote 2 down vote
What is a good book for learning to read/write grass script?
added by ixtmixilix Jul 31 '10 at 21:48
link
up vote 2 down vote
What's the difference between 不, 禁 and 勿?
added by dusan Oct 24 '10 at 14:25
link
up vote 2 down vote
Why for some words, for example, mild or warm (for weather) I need two chinese characters 温暖 and both mean "warm" in my English dictionary?
added by Edle, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Apr 17 '11 at 18:15
link
up vote 2 down vote
Is there a Cantonese counterpart to the Mandarin-based pinyin romanization?
added by Jaime Soto Jan 21 '11 at 20:04
link
up vote 2 down vote
Are there still any reasons nowadays to learn the traditional writing?
added by Anthony Labarre Feb 1 '11 at 9:43
link
up vote 2 down vote
What is the difference between 跟 and 和?
added by stillinbeta Feb 7 '11 at 3:52
link
up vote 2 down vote
Which chinese movies or series fit a beginner's level?
added by Klaus-Martin Scheuer Feb 8 '11 at 11:13
link
up vote 2 down vote
In what real world situations have you heard the word 您 used?
added by xiaohouzi79 Feb 11 '11 at 2:52
link
up vote 2 down vote
In printed text, are multi-character compounds commonly split at a line break, or would one try to keep them together on one line?
added by David Grellscheid Feb 24 '11 at 1:01
link
up vote 1 down vote
How did the character sets used in mainland, HK, and TW evolve and what are their respective merits?
added by Don Kirkby Sep 29 '10 at 20:02
link
I don't quite understand this question. Is it referring to characters that are only used in TW or HK and not in the mainland? If there are lots of them then this is way too broad. Each character has a history and an evolution and its own respective merits. – xiaohouzi79 Feb 8 '11 at 2:16
up vote 1 down vote
How do I know when to use 做 vs 作?
added by Mr. Shiny and New 安宇 Jan 7 '11 at 19:49
link
up vote 1 down vote
What has prevented Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan from adopting the Simplified Chinese character set?
added by Jaime Soto Jan 21 '11 at 20:06
link
up vote 1 down vote
What are the advantages and/or disadvantages of using bopomofo vs. romanization (e.g. pinyin) as a phonetic system?
added by Jaime Soto Jan 21 '11 at 20:13
link
up vote 1 down vote
What is the best study method for remembering how to write Chinese characters?
added by Ciaocibai Jan 27 '11 at 22:07
link
up vote 1 down vote
Which universities in mainland China are best for studying Mandarin?
added by Ciaocibai Jan 27 '11 at 22:12
link
up vote 1 down vote
How to decide the tone of words which are composed by consecutive third-tone characters? For example, "我想給你兩把小雨傘".
added by Hsien-Chih Chang 張顯之 Jan 29 '11 at 15:54
link
up vote 1 down vote
What are the most effective ways to learn which classifier belongs to which nouns?
added by Klaus-Martin Scheuer Feb 8 '11 at 11:17
link
up vote 1 down vote
用中文说 "mouse" 和 "rat" 是不是都是老鼠?如果要讲清楚哪个是 "mouse" 和哪个是 "rat" 应该怎么说?
added by xiaohouzi79 Feb 11 '11 at 3:00
link
up vote 1 down vote
Is there a concise way to explain the term guanxi (关系) to English speakers or new learners who have never heard of it before?
added by xiaohouzi79 Feb 11 '11 at 3:03
link
1 2 next

This site has

Launched!

This Stack Exchange site's beta was successful, so it launched 2 years ago.

proposed by

flow
8,937●1●56●93

11 years ago

edited by

Robert Cartaino ♦ 3
230k●71●656●1454

8 years ago

viewed

12,141 times

latest activity

8 years ago

followers

users also following

11.7% German Language
11.0% History
11.0% Japanese Language
10.3% Linguistics
20.0% only this proposal

followers active in

75.2% Stack Overflow
39.3% Super User
29.0% Meta Stack Overflow
26.2% Server Fault
24.8% Software Engineering
24.8% Chinese Language

recent followers

added Dec 20 '11 at 19:08
user49864
51●1
added Dec 19 '11 at 21:27
Alfredo Osorio
24.8k●48●152●263
added Dec 19 '11 at 6:38
calydon
629●1●18
added Dec 18 '11 at 22:41
Nicolae Surdu
9,600●12●84●151
added Dec 18 '11 at 22:01
user49753
51●1
added Dec 17 '11 at 8:05
Stone
51●1
added Dec 16 '11 at 16:31
aleung
10.3k●3●62●89
added Dec 15 '11 at 21:54
DuckMaestro
30.8k●28●176●317
added Dec 14 '11 at 21:01
macskuz
946●6●11
added Dec 14 '11 at 21:01
fordragon
51●1
added Dec 14 '11 at 8:57
LazarusX
2,866●2●21●33
added Dec 14 '11 at 5:18
Johnny Deng
51●1
added Dec 14 '11 at 3:32
Jeeson
51●1
added Dec 13 '11 at 23:14
user49572
51●1
added Dec 13 '11 at 16:03
hafichuk
13.7k●16●66●122
added Dec 13 '11 at 6:32
Huang
15.7k●4●53●79
added Dec 10 '11 at 22:30
Bjorn
4,332●1●28●38
added Dec 7 '11 at 8:16
Kelly_feb
51●2
added Dec 7 '11 at 7:45
arcyqwerty
14.6k●7●92●206
added Dec 6 '11 at 21:42
Mallow
4,860●7●40●135
added Dec 5 '11 at 14:56
hongming.qiao
51●2
added Dec 5 '11 at 4:59
Krazer ♦ 1
63.8k●25●242●492
added Nov 29 '11 at 17:33
Kris Krause
7,379●2●21●28
added Nov 29 '11 at 9:19
charles sun
5,180●16●55●77
added Nov 23 '11 at 20:38
Caleb
205k●97●854●1511
added Nov 21 '11 at 23:22
Georgeee
1,514●10●14
added Nov 3 '11 at 23:44
Zannjaminderson
5,931●12●49●83
added Nov 1 '11 at 0:54
Nathan
12.4k●12●84●137
added Oct 26 '11 at 21:12
Thaddeus
212k●23●711●1004
added Oct 26 '11 at 15:47
Szabolcs
279k●69●908●1936
added Oct 25 '11 at 17:06
FCTW
3,725●1●22●52
added Oct 6 '11 at 4:59
David
2,150●1●21●23
added Oct 6 '11 at 1:16
Claw
4,894●1●25●53
added Oct 4 '11 at 15:53
molecules
18.1k●17●98●238
added Oct 3 '11 at 18:41
Ross
5,234●6●34●68
added Sep 28 '11 at 17:09
Jin
16.2k●3●58●73
added Sep 28 '11 at 13:39
Flake
8,099●8●63●77
added Sep 22 '11 at 3:09
Phelios
11.3k●17●92●154
added Sep 15 '11 at 4:48
Xiè Jìléi
49.1k●71●268●405
added Sep 12 '11 at 13:45
Confused Laowai
51●1
feed icon proposal feed
faq | blog | legal | privacy policy | contact us | feedback always welcome
site design / logo © 2022 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under cc by-sa; see the licensing help page for more information.
rev 2022.3.23.593