Friday, March 27, 2015

What's the difference between yong4用 and 使用shi3yong4

As for 用yònɡ and shǐyònɡ使用,

  • 用yònɡ is more spoken than shǐyònɡ使用。


  • 使用shǐyònɡ is formal. 

In instruction books, they always use qǐnɡ shǐyònɡ请使用...,but they will not say qǐnɡyònɡ请用。

  • In spoken, of course you could use qǐnɡ yònɡ请用。

for example qǐnɡ yònɡ chá请用茶,qǐnɡ yònɡ wǒde bǐ请用我的笔。


  • shǐyònɡ使用 could be used as a noun, but yònɡ is just a verb。

for example xièxie nǐde shǐyònɡ谢谢您的使用。

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

What is the difference between 互相 hu4xiang1 hùxiānɡ and 相互xiang1hu4 xiānɡhù

As for the 相互hùxiānɡ and 互相 xiānɡhù 。

When they are used as the adv., they are same.

For example, you could say 我们互相帮助 wǒmen hùxiānɡ bānɡzhù,我们相互帮助wǒmen xiānɡhù bānɡzhù。

But I think people use 互相hùxiānɡ more often than 相互(xiānghù) in this case.


相互xiānɡhù could be used as adj. too, but 互相 hùxiānɡ could't.

 You could say 中国和新加坡相互的关系很好 zhōnɡɡuó hé xīnjiāpō xiānɡhù de ɡuānxìn hěnhǎo。

but you shouldn't see 中国和新加坡互相的关系很好 zhōnɡɡuó hé xīnjiāpō hùxiānɡ de ɡuānxì hěnhǎo 。

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Xiaoniao 小年(xiǎonián)in Chinese means the little year


Xiaoniao 小年(xiǎonián)in Chinese means the little year, 1 week before the Spring festival. That day the Kitchen god in your family goes to the heaven to report everything you did in this year, no matter it is good or bad. He returns back to your home on Spring Festival Eve, so in these 7 days, it is called days without taboo, you could do whatever you want, the God will not know!



Interesting Chinese characters-网wǎnɡ

The Chinese character 网 basically means Net, right now it also means Internet. The original Character 3000 years ago is very similar with the one we are using now. It looks just like a fishing net.
网吧wǎnɡbā = internet cafe
网球wǎnɡqiú= tennis


the order of Chinese character wang3


Watch the video for more details.

Interesting Chinese characters symbols-好hǎo

By John Wang
好in Chinese basically means Good. As you know, 山means mountain, 日 means sun,人means people, which are easier for ancient Chinese people to make the characters. But how could they make a Character which means Good? You just can’t use a really thing, it is a feeling. So they made Lady and Child together 女+子to show the meaning. When they saw their wives and children in their house, that means good! How smart!
女 means woman, nowadays it looks like a walking lady with big butt.
子 means child, baby. It likes a baby with big head.
Character 好 3000 years ago

The order of the Character 好
the order of Chinese character hao3
The order of Chinese Character Hao3好



To watch the video on Youtube:

Interesting Chinese characters/Chinese symbols 木mù本běn末mò

By John Wang
木mù in Chinese basically means tree, you could find this character 3000 years ago on my video, it is just a tree with branches and root.

本běn is like an arrow put on the root of the tree to show you the location. So 本means basis.
末mò, you will put the horizontal line at the top to show you mean the top. So 末 got the meaning of End.

the order of Chinese character 木mu4
the order of Chinese character 木mu4

the order of Chinese character 末mo4
the order of Chinese character 末mo4

the order of Chinese character 本 ben3
the order of Chinese character 本ben3


See more details and examples on the video: