Every learner and native speaker should take a look at these

[Kenny同志]

I bumped into this essay as I was trying to distinguish 诞生 and 诞辰. It is an attempt to advise people to use proper characters. I hope you will find it helpful.

PS: A list of commonly misused chengyus

[Kenny同志]

I find 光明日报 a great resource for learning Chinese.

Also, check this out.

[Kenny同志]

Another great resource at 人民教育出版社.

[xiaocai]

我记得小时候有本杂志名叫《咬文嚼字》，专门讨论此类问题，不知现在还在出版否⋯⋯

注：搜索一番之后发现，该杂志似乎还健在。而且人教社页面上不少文章来自其中。

不过有些成语的含义与最初的典故确是略有出入，比如朝三暮四等等，有时候还真拿捏不准。

[Kenny同志]

I read bits of 咬文嚼字; months ago and found it magnificent. Also there are many reviews on that periodical on the Internet, almost all of them very positive.

I agree with you that the dictionary may define a certain chengyu differently than how most people now define it. That's fair enough because any language, be it Chinese or English is constantly changing. More often than not, the new meaning is derived from the old meaning

By the way, there's a typo in your post - 建在>健在. 健在 is usually used on a human, but it's appropriate for a periodical in this case, it seems.

[Kenny同志]

Actually the expression is quite interesting, haha.

[xiaocai]

Corrected. Thanks to kenny for pointing out the mistake.

Note to myself: have to check and choose more carefully when use pinyin IME next time.

[xiaocai]

咬文嚼字 is a quite fun to read. I still remember back in high school we had to do presentation in Chinese class in turn on 语文小知识 and 文学常识. Once I asked my classmates if they know what is wrong with the word 绿茵如毯 at my turn, and none of them could figure it out! I felt quite proud and of course, very grateful to the magazine which has taught me about it.

Another thing really bugs me is that, at some computer automated services like ATM and ticket machines, when the system is processing your request and there is a brief waiting time, some of them will say 请稍后 instead of 请稍侯 on the screen, which I think is kind of stupid. I would have assume anyone who has completed high school level Chinese should know the different, but obviously I assumed wrong...

[tooironic]

@xiaocai Actually I think 稍后 is the correct form. It's much more commonly used; there are 7,670 hits on Google Books for "请稍后", while only 221 hits for "请稍侯". "稍候" does not appear on MDBG either.

By the way, Kenny, you may want to note that the kind of mistakes pointed out by these Chinese authors probably have little use for the average non-native speaker of Chinese, since the mistakes we make are invariably different. I was reading the Elements of Style the other day and thought of giving it to a Chinese friend to read, but then realised that few of the blunders mentioned are committed by Chinese speakers anyway. Chinese learning English should beware Chinglish; non-Chinese learning Chinese should beware "Johnwayne" or whatever you might call it. Unfortunately, though, relevant resources are hard to come by.

[Kenny同志]

The number of Google hits isn't necessarily an indicator of accuracy or correctness.

稍后 and 稍候 are quite different in meaning.

稍候 (to tell someone to) wait a moment. Note the word can't be used for yourself.

稍后 a. after a while, shortly afterwards; b. a moment later

Tooironic

I basically agree with you on your point regarding the usefulness of the resources but I still think they might be a good read to some advanced learners.

[imron]

My dictionary says:

稍后：［名］略微靠后的（时间或空间）－ 先是领导讲话，～，演出正式开始。

稍候：［动］稍微等候－请～，经理一会儿就来。

I would therefore tend to agree with xiaocai.

[skylee]

I agree with xiaocai, kenny and imron regarding 稍後 vs 稍候.

xiaocai, I have seen this mistake on the ticket selling machine of the 捷運 in Taipei and on the online passport application system in Hong Kong. I actually wrote a complaint to the HK Immigration Department about this mistake (among other things). They replied that it would be fixed, but since one would normally not need to use that system more than once every ten years, I have no idea if it has been corrected.

[creamyhorror]

tooironic: I'd say 稍 is an adjectival/adverbial modifier, so 稍候 can be read as a phrase or a modified verb.

稍后 = "a little [while] after" - adverbial, since 后 is a time adverbial

稍候 = 稍等 = "wait a little [while]" - verb, since 候 is a verb

An example of a correct usage of 稍后 from google results, page 1:

qq暂时无法登陆请稍后重试是怎么回事儿? = "...try again in a while..."

Maybe one day I will read all the articles linked in this thread, and also discover what's wrong with 绿茵如毯 My thought is that since 茵 already means 毯, it's like saying 绿毯如毯, which is silly.

I guess people may think 绿茵如毯 is okay since 绿茵茵 means 绿葱葱, so 绿茵 + 如毯 seems like a valid combination: "草原绿茵如毯".

[xiaocai]

@skylee

At least they took the effort to reply you. I don't know if the person in charge will read my complaint or not in the first place if I write a similar letter to the immigration department of China. To be honest, I don't even know how I can send a letter to them for issues like such.

@creamyhorror

From what I understand, you may say 绿草如茵, but not 绿茵如毯.

I think ABB words like 绿茵茵 may be shortened to BA structure for most cases, like 红通通 to 通红, 绿油油 to 油绿, if possible. But many of them are unable to undergo such change, for example you can say 红扑扑 but not 扑红, 黄灿灿 but not 灿黄. And 绿茵茵 obviously belongs to the latter, because we do not normally say 茵绿. But if you just change ABB to AB, then most likely the meaning of word will be changed completely, even if AB is an actually valid word. Just like 绿葱葱 obviously does not mean the same as 绿葱, 绿茵茵 is not the same as 绿茵, either.

@kenny

It is interesting to know that you think it was an interesting expression.