Author name: Armando Turturici

A long time ago, Mao Zedong said: “Latinization is an excellent tool for defeating illiteracy“. Chinese characters Chinese is a language without an alphabet that uses instead the so-called hanzi (汉字), or “Chinese characters”. To state it briefly – and in a very non-technical way – there are tens of thousands of characters and each […]

Quantitative complements – which fall under the category of verbal complements (together with resulting complements and directional complements) – are used to quantify the action or state that the verb expresses.

These complements are divided into: complements of incidence, which specify how many times a particular action is taken; complements of length, which specifies the length of an action or a state expressed by the verb; and complements of extension, which quantifies the action derived from the verb.

Rhetorical questions – are a linguistic figure that consists in posing a question that doesn’t represent an actual request for information, but implies a sort of predetermined response. A linguistic figure that isn’t lacking in any language and whose importance is unequivocal. In fact, as Umberto Eco ironically asked: “is there really a need for

A complement of degree – which makes up part of the verbal complements – serves two functions: first of all it describes the way an action takes place or took place in the past.

In this case, the verbal complement is, most times, a predicative adjective; the complements of degree also specifies the intensity of the action or state expressed in the phrase, citing the consequences produced.

Cong zi wu bi, zhi shi, 从子无臂，指事 (From the character “baby” without arms, an abstract symbol) According to many students of the Chinese language, the particle le (了) is among the most difficult Chinese grammatical particles to master. 了is not an element to represent the past tense (like many think); it is a particle that

Guide to the HSK 6 Test – Advanced Chinese – Index Premise Exam structure Find the error Particular constructions Uncommon words List of frequent chengyu The differences between 口面用语 and 书面用语 Reading The final exercise: the summary Listening Recommended manuals P.S. Click here to test your HSK level with our free quiz! Premise Before taking

Similarities between Chinese and Japanese – Index Main similarities between Chinese and Japanese Main differences between Chinese and Japanese Frequently asked questions Conclusion A frequent question asked of students of Chinese or Japanese is “what’s the difference between Chinese and Japanese?” This question, if asked by someone who hasn’t had the good fortune to learn

Interrogative substitutions谁 (shéi/shuí)，什么 (shénme)，哪 (nǎ) Interrogative substitutions are similar to the “wh – question words” in English, or the interrogative pronouns in Italian. When using interrogative substitutions, the order of the phrase doesn’t change. The interrogative substitutions, precisely, substitute the word that should be found in the answer. When formulating a question through the use

The Chengyu, in Chinese 成语, are four character expressions that express a particular meaning, taken from the stories of classical China. There are lots of Chengyu in the Chinese language and they get used quite a bit. When a foreigner manages to master the Chengyu – along with idiomatic expressions – both in written and

In this article, we’ll see special constructions, peculiar to the Chinese language that will make your expressions in Chinese more elegant. 如 and 不如 如 (rú) “to be equal to, like a” is used more in the formal written form than in the spoken language. The comparison is created when it’s mainly used metaphorically. Here

The greater than comparative In Chinese there are two ways to form a greater than comparative. The first, quite simply, is by inserting adjectives with an opposite meaning in a phrase. In this case, the adjectives have an intrinsic comparative value. When using this form of comparative, the intensifier 很 (hěn) – or any other