New Members Deanom Posted March 4, 2015 at 07:06 AM New Members Report Posted March 4, 2015 at 07:06 AM n.tiff Hi There - I have done a fair bit of searching and found your excellent site. Is an expert out there able to please advise if the two symbols can be altered to read something/anything? I am open to suggestions. Thanks kindly !!!! 1 Quote
liuzhou Posted March 4, 2015 at 09:38 AM Report Posted March 4, 2015 at 09:38 AM 尼叮 No. It's meaningless. Quote
New Members Deanom Posted March 4, 2015 at 09:59 AM Author New Members Report Posted March 4, 2015 at 09:59 AM Thanks for your reply. Can it be altered to mean something? Can strokes/symbols be added to it to make it mean something? Or is it too complex to do this? 2 Quote
liuzhou Posted March 4, 2015 at 12:10 PM Report Posted March 4, 2015 at 12:10 PM Can it be altered to mean something? Can strokes/symbols be added to it to make it mean something? Or is it too complex to do this? What are asking is can you say something else. You can't just change things. It would be like changing 'tart pet' into 'trumpet'. Ridiculous. Perhaps if you explain more clearly what it is you want, and why, we may be able to help. 1 Quote
New Members Deanom Posted March 4, 2015 at 12:28 PM Author New Members Report Posted March 4, 2015 at 12:28 PM "Ridiculous"???? Not really because you can change things. In English you can change words. 'Post' changed to 'past'. 'Tree' changed to 'treat'. Just by adding minimal 'strokes' to the lettering. Can you not do this with Mandarin/Cantonese? It is not a ridiculous comment or suggestion - it is merely a question being asked by someone who does not know the language that you are extremely familiar with. The symbols I provided are meant to be representative of the name, "Nicola," or, "Nicky." That is what I have been told. If the meaning can be changed by more 'strokes' added then that is great and my son will be happy (he has it as a tattoo). If it cannot be altered/changed then that is fine and I thank you for your time. 2 Quote
889 Posted March 4, 2015 at 12:42 PM Report Posted March 4, 2015 at 12:42 PM There should be a standing notice to provide context when asking for a translation. In any event, I suspect this is part of one of those scavenger-hunt guessing games that's appeared on forums over the years: part of a puzzle to be solved to lead to the next treasure. The solution usually has nothing to do with Chinese. 1 Quote
imron Posted March 4, 2015 at 01:05 PM Report Posted March 4, 2015 at 01:05 PM @Deanom, don't worry, your son can relax, it doesn't mean Nicola or Nicky, any more than putting the words 'knee core lair' or 'knee king' together does. That's basically what he's done - string random words together that sort of but not really sound like something else when you say them together. You can thank his ignorance about the Chinese language that he doesn't actually have his ex's name tattooed on him in Chinese. Quote
New Members Deanom Posted March 4, 2015 at 01:18 PM Author New Members Report Posted March 4, 2015 at 01:18 PM Thanks for you insight and wise words. Good luck with your forum and sorry for wasting your time…..and mine. Thank his ignorance? Scavenger hunt? Yes that's the way to talk to people. Hey, here's a suggestion. Remove the tattoo forum. Then you won't have to be condescending or arrogant anymore. Or waste your time not even really answering the question but just providing opinions on the situation. Clever aren't we? Bye. Quote
roddy Posted March 4, 2015 at 01:28 PM Report Posted March 4, 2015 at 01:28 PM Liuzhou, I think you've misread the characters, and Imron, I think you've not looked at them. Here it is in a more accessible format. From 'excellent site' to 'condescending and arrogant' in about six hours. Good work, lads ;-) That standing notice exists, 889. Obviously not everyone reads it. 3 Quote
imron Posted March 4, 2015 at 01:43 PM Report Posted March 4, 2015 at 01:43 PM and Imron, I think you've not looked at them Guilty as charged, but my point still stands (I've also updated the link). That will teach me to trust Liuzhou Quote
889 Posted March 4, 2015 at 01:49 PM Report Posted March 4, 2015 at 01:49 PM Just to clarify for the OP: I made the scavenger hunt remark without seeing your intervening post explaining that it was intended to be a name; and like Imron, I didn't open your image because my machine didn't like you throwing a .tiff at us. Quote
liuzhou Posted March 4, 2015 at 02:12 PM Report Posted March 4, 2015 at 02:12 PM Apologies. I did misread the second character. 尼可.Still think it's silly to suggest changing characters in the way described, though. I just wish people would realise that English names can seldom be "translated". Only meaningless phonetic approximations can be found. Quote
Popular Post roddy Posted March 4, 2015 at 02:50 PM Popular Post Report Posted March 4, 2015 at 02:50 PM Given that this sub-forum is basically designed for people who don't know anything about the Chinese language, you might want to stop posting in it. Or at least give new topics 48 hours for the less jaded members to have a shot, then see if you have anything to add.... 6 Quote
anonymoose Posted March 4, 2015 at 03:02 PM Report Posted March 4, 2015 at 03:02 PM OK, I'll be the first to actually answer the question: You can put a 氵 in front of each character to give 泥河, which is a place in Anhui Province, in China. 3 Quote
roddy Posted March 4, 2015 at 03:30 PM Report Posted March 4, 2015 at 03:30 PM Or...a volcano-threatened house. Quote
Guest realmayo Posted March 4, 2015 at 04:06 PM Report Posted March 4, 2015 at 04:06 PM a volcano-threatened house. humm this post makes sense now: http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/47921-chinese-text-in-use-in-china/#comment-363891 Quote
geraldc Posted March 4, 2015 at 04:44 PM Report Posted March 4, 2015 at 04:44 PM Tattoo a "Nike" Swoosh below it. 2 Quote
Popular Post renzhe Posted March 4, 2015 at 04:45 PM Popular Post Report Posted March 4, 2015 at 04:45 PM Basically, your son got some characters tattooed, which sound a bit like "Nick". "Translating" names into Chinese is a bad idea for many reasons, but this does roughly sound like "Nick", though it's meaningless. Now the "Nick" or "Nicola" or "Nicky" has left your son's life and he would like to change it to something else, right? The characters 尼 and 可 are not very good candidates for being altered, but you might find something useful in this list: http://www.xiaoma.info/hanzi.php?hz=%E6%80%A9 http://www.xiaoma.info/hanzi.php?hz=%E5%9D%AD http://www.xiaoma.info/hanzi.php?hz=%E9%93%8C http://www.xiaoma.info/hanzi.php?hz=%E6%B3%A5 http://www.xiaoma.info/hanzi.php?hz=%E5%A6%AE http://www.xiaoma.info/hanzi.php?hz=%E6%98%B5 http://www.xiaoma.info/hanzi.php?hz=%E4%BD%95 http://www.xiaoma.info/hanzi.php?hz=%E6%B2%B3 http://www.xiaoma.info/hanzi.php?hz=%E8%8D%B7 http://www.xiaoma.info/hanzi.php?hz=%E8%8F%8F http://www.xiaoma.info/hanzi.php?hz=%E6%9F%AF http://www.xiaoma.info/hanzi.php?hz=%E8%8B%9B http://www.xiaoma.info/hanzi.php?hz=%E7%8F%82 http://www.xiaoma.info/hanzi.php?hz=%E8%BD%B2 www.xiaoma.info/hanzi.php?hz=坷 http://www.xiaoma.info/hanzi.php?hz=%E9%92%B6 Not many good candidates, I'm afraid, and the combination willl almost certainly be gibberish, but at least it won't say "Nick". 5 Quote
Shelley Posted March 4, 2015 at 05:23 PM Report Posted March 4, 2015 at 05:23 PM Hmm as a relatively lower level learner, I didn't want to come piling in with "aren't all you more advanced guys wrong?", surely it says Ne Ke 尼可 so could be Nicky, or Nick. Maybe next time I will have the courage of my convictions and throw in my 2 cents for what its worth. 1 Quote
edelweis Posted March 4, 2015 at 07:59 PM Report Posted March 4, 2015 at 07:59 PM 尼轲 it seems it means "Confucius and Mencius" http://baike.baidu.com/view/6534333.htm It's still the same pronunciation though (ni ke) and the 轲 would look unbalanced... 2 Quote
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