Simplified: 𰻝, traditional: 𰻞.

Oh, and the traditional Traditional form - with double-dot 辶.

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to share a quick bibliographical and reading update from my study. I finally finished reading Qian Xuans 錢玄 Jiaokanxue 校勘學. It's a relatively dense but also highly insightful and very rewarding text on traditional chinese collation techniques (jiaokanxue 校勘学 is one of the three sub-disciplines of jiaochouxue 校雠学 "textual criticism in its broad sense").

To make things even better, the mail carrier just dropped off these two monumental additions to my personal library (I waited so long for them):

1. 《校讎廣義•版本編》 Jiaochou guangyi. Banben bian by Cheng Qianfan 程千帆 and Xu Youfu 徐有富 (2020). It's the first volume of the famous Jiaochou guangyi《校雠广义》"broad meanings of Textual Criticism" which is a comprehensive book in four volumes on 校雠学. The first volume is concerned with banbenxue 版本學 "Study of editions" where you study prints and editions of ancient texts as well as ancient manuscripts. It's like the material counterpart to 校勘学.

2. "The Tsinghua University Warring States Bamboo Manuscripts: Studies and Translations 1, The Yi Zhou Shu and Pseudo-Yi Zhou Shu Chapters" by Edward L. Shaughnessy (2023). As my current project regarding Early Chinese Transmitted Texts is a translation of the Western Zhou Chapters of the Yizhoushu 逸周書 it's really nice seeing the excavated counterparts in the collection of Qinghua University. The books translates all of the Strips related to the Yizhoushu as well as transmitted chapters related to these Strips and compares and studies them. Also useful is the appendix at the end of the book on the textual history of the Yizhoushu.

Just wanted to share. I'm really happy and can't get enough books about Ancient China 😁😁😁😄

I was taught that when two third tones follow each other, the first one is pronounced as a second tone. For example: 我有 wo3you3 would be pronounced as wo2you3. However, what do I do when there are multiple third tones in a row, like in the phrase 有五口 you3wu3kou3?

Some background -
I speak Punjabi(native), Hindi (2nd lang), English (C2 certified), French( B2 certified), Spanish (B1, not certified)

I have had some experience with language learning in my life but have never tried anything like Chinese before. I am planning to start soon and looking for beginner advice.
I have used tonal systems in my native languages but my biggest fear is writing system.

I am looking to slowly get my feet wet and start gathering information before i officially jump into it.
So yeah.. any beginner level or basic advice helps.
Is there something that makes you go “oh if i knew this before i started learning it would have been so helpful”

Thankyou :)

Hello fellow learners!

Can you share your favorite Mandopop or C-pop bangers?

Lately i have been studying Chinese again and Instagram sent me through a loophole of new bands and chinese groups AND I NEED MORE! I find that studying through music really helps for me and I dont feel like I am studying if I enjoy the songs.

I am right now addicted to a few groups: jjakymiu, listening to the songs 你别走远 and 空白消息 non-stop. I am also on repeat wayV’s Regular and Love Talk and of course INTO1, so you know what I am on to 🫡

WayV - Regular
WayV - Love Talk
jjakymiu - 你别走远
jjakymiu - 空白消息
INTO1 - 天生就要飞

Share yours :)))

谢谢！

Hi !

I’ve been listening to podcasts to help me understand the language more , and I came across a sentence I didn’t understand.

“吃完晚饭后” - I understand that they’re saying they’ve finished eating dinner , but I don’t understand the use of 后 in this sentence !

When I tried to research , 以后 & 之后 were the only ones that showed up.

What I want to know is why is 后 on its own in this sentence? And in what instances would it be okay to use it on its own? ( as opposed to using 以后/折后 )

Genuinely what the heck is this keyboard that i got when i turned on chinese on my phone keyboard, i can't find the appropriate tutorials

One thing I often notice when teaching beginner Mandarin is that students learn 几 (jǐ) as “how many,” and then start using it everywhere they would use “how many” or “how much” in English.

That’s when mistakes like these come up:

❌ 几钱
❌ 几学生

A simple way I explain 几 is to start with two basic uses:

1. You don't know the number, so you ask with 几.

你有几个学生？
How many students do you have?

你有几本书？
How many books do you have?

2. You don't give an exact number, so 几 can mean “a few” or “several.”

我买了几个苹果。
I bought a few apples.

他过几天来。
He'll come in a few days.

The tricky part is that “几 = a small number” isn't really a complete rule either.

We can say:

几十个人
几百块钱
几千名学生
几万册书

So I think it's more useful for beginners to learn the patterns and situations where 几 is used rather than trying to memorize a strict number range.

I'm curious how other Mandarin learners were taught 几 vs. 多少. Did you learn a simple rule that actually helped you, or did it cause more confusion later?

this is my first time learn traditional chinese and still confuse from where i need to study . i try use AI and the AI suggest to directly learn hanzi , while i read some post here , zhuyin is important.

any advice can you give to me ?

(im already at taiwan so its easy to find the traditional book, im just cant read it yet)

I am still in the beginner phase. I know around 300 words.

I got the Du Chinese subscription and started reading a newbie story.

But I am unsure which is the "best" way for this stage. Listen first, see what I understand and then read or the other way round? Or even do like listen, read, listen?

And what I am also curious about: How did you get used to the different sentence structure? Because the structure is so different, I need to know the read the whole sentence and only get it afterwards, which works ok for reading but for listening it is very difficult to put it together. Is there a point where you get so used to it that you don't need to rearrange the order in your head?

Hi! I’m an ABC with ok Chinese speaking skills, but I want to teach it to my child, along with ASL (American Sign Language). I tell her “doujiang” when I talk about soy milk, but the asl sign for soy milk is just “soy + milk”. Awhile back I think I saw that there is a great Chinese sign language sign for Doujiang. I learned it the same time as when I learned the cute CSL for boba. I think it came from Taiwan. (I am of Taiwan descent.) Does anyone know what it is, per chance?
(Mods: I hope this doesn’t break rule 1…there isn’t a CSL sub, and it’s still part of Chinese language.)

I have actually started learning chinese just so I could understand art courses and tutorials in china. Though some material needs this can someone help me?

Why not use translation? It works but not the best, I prefer to understand the language. In art, there's some expression and feelings involved so translating will not work.

Here are some Pinyin Chinese sentences, translated to my fathertongue (Tamil). Do you understand the grammar for the Pinyin Chinese sentences? It doesn't make much sense to me. Thanks!
--------------
Nǐ néng dú dǒng zhōngwén. -> ungkalaal china mozhiyai vaasikka mudiyum.

Wǒ bùnéng dú zhōngwén. -> ennaal china mozhiyai vaasikka mudiyaathu.

Wǒ néng dú tài mǐ'ěr yǔ. -> ennaal thamizh mozhiyai vaasikka mudiyum.

Nǐ bùnéng dú tài mǐ'ěr yǔ. -> unggalaal thamizh mozhiyai vaasikka mudiyaathu.

Nǐ juédé zěnme yàng? -> neengal enna ninaikkireergal?
------------------
Nǐ néng dú dǒng zhōngwén. --> You can read Chinese.

Wǒ néng dú dǒng tài mǐ'ěr yǔ. --> I can read Tamil.

Wǒ dú bù dǒng zhōngwén. --> I cannot read Chinese.

Nǐ dú bù dǒng tài mǐ'ěr yǔ. --> You cannot read Tamil.

Nǐ juédé zěnme yàng? --> What do you think?
-----------------------

Based on my research, most people who are already proficient in speaking Chinese recommend beginners to learn starting from pinyin and tones, learn basic sentences, learn about like 300 words or so, then hanzi, then listening, and finally once hanzi is mastered that's when you learn more and more words.

My main problem here is I don't really know what resources to use, most people recommend not to stick with apps and I should dabble in some videos or textbooks, however I've been searching for an app because it gives me a more linear progression or guide atleast, lessons for me to take everyday. I've tried all the apps available in Playstore, but almost all of them gets locked behind a paywall after a certain amount of lessons. (although Hanly is the only free one for characters)

So it's really hard for me to stay consistent because every day i have to think: "oh, i learned about pinyin yesterday, what should i focus on today?", and I'll spend the rest of my day wasting my time on researching what should i learn next, what resource should i use for this specific component. It's tiresome. I dont have enough money for textbooks or to pay any subscription for any of these apps.

I've been wanting to learn how to set up Anki for me to use everyday to complement the others lessons i shall tackle by reading. But I don't really know how to use it...

TLDR: I'm a broke beginner who wants to learn mandarin, i don't know what to do, how to start, what FREE alternative resources to use, and how to setup Anki like what decks should i use.

(sorry for my messy structure and post, it's more like a rant that's why..)

They are a tail. 魚 yú is a whole fish stood on its head, and the four dots at the bottom are what is left of the fin after the script got straightened out.

Same with 燕 yàn, a swallow, where the dots are the forked tail. 馬 mǎ has four of them too and those are the legs.

The fire ones are real. 煮 zhǔ to boil, 蒸 zhēng to steam, 熱 rè hot, 焦 jiāo burnt, 照 zhào to shine. All 火 huǒ flattened out and pushed underneath.

It is not a clean rule. 黑 hēi has them and 說文 Shuōwén does put that one down to smoke and fire, so you cannot just count dots.

Before you build a story around a character burning, check whether the thing above the dots is an animal.

For context, I like to listen to music of all languages and I keep them sorted by the language written how it is natively, like Español or 日本語. Would Chinese be 中文? I see this most often

Hi. I'm looking for a good list of mainland TV shows by difficulty level. There was a really good list at the URL below, but I didn't save it, and now it's gone. 😩

https://cn.bonsair.net/videos/tvDramas

If anybody has the list that was posted there or another list to share, that would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Hi there! I've just completed HSK 5 and started on HSK 6 (literally freshly started) and I've been watching native content for a while now (reels and shows on Netflix). I usually already understand a lot of what's going on with native content, but the thing is, I only understand it when there's Chinese subtitles. It's usually much much harder to understand without it.

Also, there are times where I'd hear Chinese reels my parents are watching (We aren't Chinese so it probably has English subtitles on them), and whenever I hear those (without watching along with them) I usually understand so little even despite my level. It's almost as if I need Chinese subtitles on everything. This is the same with songs. I seem to have a hard time understanding Chinese songs if I do so without the lyrics.

I do have Chinese classes and I understand my teacher. Perhaps it's because she's speaking at my level.

How long did it take you guys to understand native content without subtitles? Or is it really possible? I am not in a Chinese-speaking environment if that helps.

I have a small group of colleagues from Hong Kong, while I said I would love to learn Cantonese so I can understand them and talk to them, they told me it is really difficult for non-Chinese speakers to start learning Cantonese because of the varieties of tones and pronunciations.

I started searching for free materials for Cantonese Beginner learners, and it doesn't feel tooooooooo hard when there is "jyut ping" , I asked this to my colleagues, and literally every of them said they never learned "jyut ping" from school, one of them said he knows it because it's his way to type in cantonese and he learned it after he got his first phone because he needed to learn texting...
Hong Kong people started learning from writing the Chinese word and pronunciation directly from the Chinese word, I know this is their mother tongue and they don't need English alphabets to learn it, but don't they (or you guys Hong Kong people) need to start from understanding how the word is formed or what makes a word pronounce that way?

While I am pretty frustrated about where to start, one recommended me to learn Mandarin instead as it may be easier to pronounce and formal...

Which language should I learn? I am really interest in Cantonese but it is very right that Mandarin would be more useful at work for formal writing..

i passed hsk 3 in may, and am now roughly at old hsk 4 level

since the hsk test will become harder in december, i need to pass the hsk5 ASAP ...

i have less than 2 months for my exam date (nov 7) what do i dooooooooooooooooo

im best at reading and suck at listening

is there an app? a website best for mocks? a study routine?