Characters & Special Usages
Everyday phrases, rhetorical questions, and structures used in casual Mandarin.
38 articles
- How do I read the different times on the clock in Mandarin Chinese?
- Can I put two infixes in a row to express "Or?" (回得来回不来 huídelái huíbulái)
- Does 不要 búyào mean "not want" or "don't"?
- How can 什么 be used along with 吗？Aren't they contradictory question words?
- How did we determine the 汉字 order for the Intermediate Course?
- How do I handle sentences where I know the characters but still am not sure of the meaning?
- How do I use '也 yě - also' to connect phrases in Chinese?
- How do I use the character 理 lǐ?
- How do I use 先... 再... properly for sequences?
- How do I use 打包 dǎbāo?
- How do I use 过去 guòqu/过来 guòlai?
- How do you determine where to apply 的? (我放在桌子上的面包)
- How do you use "再 something 也 something else" and contrasting antonyms (苦甜)?
- How do you use "出问题" to mean "A problem emerged"?
- How does 又 yòu function in a sentence?
- How to modify psychological verbs?
- How to think about characters with similar keyword? (兄 and 哥 )
- How to use 区 qū to mean "administrative division" (e.g., 高新区 gāoxīn qū - "high-tech zone")
- How to use 意外 yìwài? What's the difference between the noun and adjective versions?
- How to use 活动 huódòng as a noun?
- Should I re-learn characters that I haven't totally solidified?
- Using 在 in relationship to time (e.g., 哥哥要*在*白天休息)
- Using 的 with time words (e.g., 加班的时间 jiābān de shíjiān - 'amount of overtime')
- What does 做人做事 zuòrénzuòshì mean?
- What does 小姐 xiǎojiě mean?
- What does 差 chà mean? Is it 'poor quality' or 'difference'?
- What is the difference of characters, words, and morphemes?
- What's the usage of analyzing sentence of 红肿 in 我的背上有一个红肿的包？
- What's up with the "到 + place + 去" structure? Why just say "去 + place"?
- What's up with 之?
- What's up with 儿化 érhuà (i.e., syllables adding "儿 er" at the end)? When to use it?
- What's up with 弄 nòng? It seems to have so many usages
- When telling a story about the past in Chinese, can I omit 了？
- When to use 的 地 得 "de" in sentences?
- Why am I using the -en or -eng set for characters that don't have an "e"? (e.g., 'ming')
- Why can you separate 见面 jiànmiàn (e.g., 见一次面)?
- Why does 肉 mean "Pork"?
- Why does 讨 tǎo get a keyword of "to coax"? Why are MB keywords sometimes different from Pleco?