How many characters do you have to know to be fluent in Chinese?
There are over 50,000 Chinese characters and it would be an absolute superhuman feat to remember anything even remotely close to that 1,500 to 2,000 …
Do Chinese people’s names really have a meaning?
Okay, here’s the thing: Every Chinese name, when translated literally into English, often has a meaning similar to the style of names in World of Warcraft, …
Is Chinese really the hardest language in the world to learn?
I’m Singaporean. In theory, I’m bilingual. In Singapore, many of my daily interactions will be in Chinese. Many people will speak Chinese to me, and …
What is the meaning of “如何51吃瓜北京朝阳群众热心吃瓜”?
You might not have copied the sentence completely. “如何51吃瓜北京朝阳群众热心吃 瓜” Do not know what does that mean. But I’d like to explain a bit. “瓜” …
Why Chinese people dont use different kind of Chinese characters?
we have used “贾湖刻符” at 9000 years ago: we have used “双墩刻符” at 7000 years ago: we have used “半坡陶符” at 6000 years ago: we …
Do Chinese characters look like what they mean?
It depends on which font/script you’re looking at and what the original meaning is. 1# Let’s say nouns. There are many types of nouns, like nouns representing …
Why do people pronounce “那个” as “nei ge” instead of “na ge?”
The reason people pronounce “那个” as “nei ge” is similar to the reason why people pronounce “going to” as “gonna.” When words are spoken quickly, …
Did Classical Chinese (文言) have similar use of punctuation marks (标点符号) as modern Chinese?
No. Classical Chinese was not punctuated. The reader could add marks, called 讀 (pronounced tòu/do) and 句; 讀 was like a comma, 句 like a …
What is the reason for the large number of characters in the Chinese language? Is there a way to simplify them without losing their meaning?
Like most other forms of written language, Chinese script started out as a pictographic script where the characters looked like what they represented. You can …
Why is next month 下個月 instead of 明月?
The basic meaning of 明 is bright (sun+moon). 明天 implies hope, a time that we look forward to. When the night is over, the bright …