Random new word of the day

[Lu]

The rule is pretty straightforward: Tone mark goes on the first vowel, unless the first vowel is u or i, then on second vowel.

Will post a random word later (if I find a good one).

[Lu]

赦免 she4mian3 pardon, as in what someone can give a convict so that the convict is not put to death

逮捕 dai4bu3 arrest

Both sound like words that I should have learned about three or four years ago. Actually I think I did learn them three or four years ago, only to forget them.

[muyongshi]

Got two:

First was one that I learned but have never used and ran across it again today: 酌量 zhóuliàng to consider or deliberate

Second is more of a group of words that I found very interesting and stemmed from my running across 驳 bó- refute or contradict (it has a few other meanings but I was just looking at these)

反驳 (fǎn~) Refute, Retort, Rebut

辩驳 (biàn~) Dispute, refute

批驳 (pī~) Refute, rebut, criticize

驳斥 (~chì) Refute, denounce

驳倒 (~dǎo) demolish someones argument, succeed in refuting

驳回 (~huí) reject, turn down, overrule

[heifeng]

here are some not so useful words...but fun...and really random

猫王mao1wang4 elvis

肌肉萎缩 ji1rou4 wei3suo1 muscle atrophy

血友病 xue4you3bing4 hemophilia

獴 meng3 meercat/mongoose type(I dunno kingdom?) of animal

these are mostly from me watching tv..

[Josh2007]

罂粟 yīngsù: apparently means "opium poppy". I was looking up the word for poppy to explain the Poppy Campaign in England, but I am not sure that I wanted the "opium" variety...

[Myriam]

I couldn't download http://music.sogua.com/urls/13411543.htm (from this thread) properly, a real pain in the neck!

哑剧表演 yǎjù biǎoyǎn : mime performance, pantomime

Comic relief.

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慢吞吞 màn tūn tūn very slow, sluggish

[muyongshi]

This doesn't seem like a big one but it was new to me....

茶几 chájī Tea table (or what I would call a coffee table- I guess they are in essence the same thing...)

[Lu]

Legal stuff:

清算 qing1suan4 inventory

遺產 yi2chan3 inheritance, or succession (amusing enough, when I googled 'succession law taiwan' to find some context of the article I'm translating, most that turned up was about China's 'anti-succession law')

當事人進行主義 dang1shi4ren2 jin4xing2 zhu3yi4 adversary system. Wikipedia has some explanation of what that is.

All from quite possibly the most difficult translation I have made so far. Not just the legal terms, but also how they get together in endless impossible sentences, and how some of the legal terms are just not to be found.

[heifeng]

[edit: To Lu, after her challenging translation]

轩尼诗 VSOP ( 我的痛快!) (xuan1ni2shi1)

Henessy VSOP

Where:

On 星空network every signal night past 10pm....AND during every single commercial break (Why is it suddenly in Cantonese now by the way??)

but, FYI, Henessy people, the brainwashing is NOT working....nope, I still have no urge to drive an expensive sports car, zig zag through the mountains, or paint and make a big mess, and sip on some VSOP. Instead, your commercial only added onto my random vocabulary knowlege, right up here with meercat! and some how the the cantonese version of 我的痛快 sounds like 头发 to my mandarin ears....giggle giggle

[imron]

茶几 chájī Tea table

Good to see at least one other person is still reading 《雷雨》

[muyongshi]

Well actually got that furniture shopping today- I am still reading but still behind. Been doing house searching....

[Josh2007]

磨合 móhé v. break in a new thing, eg a pair of shoes.

[Lu]

邯鄲學步 Han2dan1 xue2 bu4 'learning the walk of Handan', means forgetting your old skills in the process of learning something new. According to my dictionary, this is from a story in the Zhuangzi: a man from Yan goes to Handan, capital of Zhao. He likes the way people walk there, and tries to learn it as well. But before he learns the new walk, he forgets his own way of walking, and has to crawl all the way back home.

Somehow this is criticism of the DPP, but I haven't translated this article far enough yet to know how and why.

And thanks to Heifeng for the virtual drink she got me :-)

[Josh2007]

这样说会太笼统: this is too sweeping a statement

笼统: lǒngtǒng: sweeping, generalized

[Josh2007]

XX病逝享年50岁 XX died of illness at the age of 50

xiang3nian2: polite phrase, meaning "at the age of "

[muyongshi]

(别)调味口 (what he wrote)(suspicion that it should be 胃口)

This is my own translation of how I understood it as my friend just said it too me (texted rather) but it should me, Don't get me excited! I told him about a song and told him how nice it was and he replied back with 别调我的胃口

If someone can explain it a bit better and maybe clarify the "correct" character that would be great

[skylee]

If someone can explain it a bit better and maybe clarify the "correct" character that would be great

Take a look -> 吊胃口

[fireball9261]

Could it be "别吊(弔)我的胃口"? It's the same as "賣關子". It means the action like mine when I gave you this phrase, but did not give you the English translation.

Ha ha! Anyway, it means something like, "Don't hold back from me. Tell me!" Maybe he wants you to show him that song.

[muyongshi]

skylee as always to the rescue

[imron]

镇流器 - the thing in fluorescent lights that makes them turn on. Guess what I had to replace today...