djwebb2004 Posted March 17, 2005 at 10:30 PM Report Share Posted March 17, 2005 at 10:30 PM I have just come across a wonderful book called Mastering French Vocabulary by Barron's. It contains 12000 organised by 24 subjects. These are divided into 122 sub-subjects, with more common and less common words listed separately and examples of usage shown! If only someone would do the same for Chinese. The HSK would be so much better if organised by subject. If anyone knows of any book like Barron's Mastering French for Chinese, I would like to know. If I ever get fluent in Chinese, I might one day copy the format and do my own "Mastering Chinese Vocabulary"! Alphabetical lists are just not as good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gato Posted March 17, 2005 at 11:22 PM Report Share Posted March 17, 2005 at 11:22 PM Like this list (Kingsoft's Power Word, 金山词霸)? It also has other categories, like law, economics, and so forth. Fruits apple 苹果 pear 梨 apricot 杏 peach 桃 grape 葡萄 banana 香蕉 pineapple 菠萝 plum 李子 watermelon 西瓜 orange 橙 lemon 柠檬 mango 芒果 strawberry 草莓 medlar 枇杷,欧查果 mulberry 桑椹 nectarine 油桃 cherry 樱桃 pomegranate 石榴 fig 无花果 tangerine 柑子 persimmon 柿子 walnut 胡桃 hazelnut 榛子 peanut 花生 date 枣 chestnut 粟 currant 醋粟 coconut, cocoanut 可可 bilberry 越桔 blackberry, blueberry 黑莓 avocado 鳄梨 black currant 红醋栗 blood orange 红橙 citron, grapefruit 香橼 damson 大马士革李 almond 巴旦杏 nutmeg 肉豆蔻 papaya, papaw 番木瓜 guava 番石榴 pistachio 阿月浑子 prickly pear 仙人掌果 raspberry 覆盆子 soursop 刺果番荔枝 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djwebb2004 Posted March 18, 2005 at 12:09 AM Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2005 at 12:09 AM How extensive is Kingsoft? Does it contain 10,000 words in different categories? Or is it the usual basic vocabulary only? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gato Posted March 18, 2005 at 12:32 AM Report Share Posted March 18, 2005 at 12:32 AM The main part of Power Word is an electronic Chinese-Chinese, Chinese-English, English-Chinese dictionary. I'm guessing that it would have hundreds of thousands of entries. The vocab list is only a small part of the program for Chinese kids who want to memorize English vocabs. It just turns out that Chinese learners can use the same list. The list probably has about a couple of thousand words in thirty-some different categories. The words are mostly fairly technical, like in medicine, science, computer, etc. There are also a few more everyday categories like pets, movies, and sports. A vocab list of 10,000 words would be overkill. You won't be learning words from a list when you get that advanced. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zingaro Posted March 20, 2005 at 08:37 AM Report Share Posted March 20, 2005 at 08:37 AM Kingsoft's Powerword 2005 has several hundred thousand entries comprised of basic vocabulary and specialized vocabularies such as scientific and other vocabularies. It also includes quite a few idioms and even some slang. The nice thing about Powerword 2005 is that you can define both Chinese and English words with a mouse-over, get an audio pronunciation (sometimes a bit clumsy, but close enough to work with it) and look up the word in the dictionary with a single mouse click. Definitions are fairly extensive and give various usages. The mouse-over works within the dictionary as well as with all other on-screen type (word processing, spreadsheets, web browser, etc. etc.) The mouse-over doesn't work with GIF image representations of Chinese characters, however. It's not a translator - "only" a dictionary, but just about the best I've found. The 2005 version has both English and Chinese interface options. And you can turn the mouse-over on and off at will. I use it heavily when studying, writing email, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gato Posted March 21, 2005 at 07:38 AM Report Share Posted March 21, 2005 at 07:38 AM Kingsoft has an online dictionary available at http://cb.kingsoft.com/search?lang=utf-8&s=%E9%9C%B8%E7%8E%8B&d=PWDCCAC The above link gives the definition of "霸王". The standalone Powerword is described at http://www.kingsoft.com/product/131/ciba2005_01.shtml I think the latest English edition of Powerword might still be Powerword 2002. They don't seem to think much of the non-Chinese market for some reason. They are selling Powerword 2005 in China for US$6 a copy, whereas Wenlin goes for US$200 a copy. Maybe it'd be worth their while in making another English edition. They also have a product called 金山快译2005 (Fast Translation) that does automated Chinese<->English<->Japanese translations. The Chinese-to-English translation was barely usable, I thought, but you could kind of figure it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlo Posted March 22, 2005 at 02:14 AM Report Share Posted March 22, 2005 at 02:14 AM There's a book called 'Colloquial Cantonese and Putonghua Equivalents' that I picked up in Macau 3 years ago, which probably most closely resembles Barron's study guides. It introduces 8000+ frequently used words and expressions in Cantonese, Mandarin and English with transliterations in 30+ chapters from 'Food and Drink' to 'Idiomatic Phrases'. The selection of words is very well done IMHO, as it focuses on the spoken rather than the written language (IIRC 'salty' as in 'this dish is too salty' is 齁鹹 in Mandarin and 鹹死大癩 in Cantonese ). Some expressions may be slightly dated though, especially with Cantonese, as Cantonese slang decays faster than an unstable isotope. Published I think by 三聯. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ti99er22 Posted March 24, 2005 at 04:06 PM Report Share Posted March 24, 2005 at 04:06 PM First of all djwebb2004, do you have the ISBN number of the 'Mastering French Vocabulary by Barron's' book you have? I'd love to get a copy too! As for Chinese vocabulary listed by category, you could try: A Practical Talking e-Dictionary of Cantonese ISBN 1-58070-502-2 The lists of Chinese vocab, in simplified & traditional Chinese text include: Activities 娛樂 Airlines Companies 航空公司 Animals 動物 Chinese Cooking 中菜烹調法 Churches and Temples 教堂及廟宇 Color and Clothing 顏色和衣飾 Commercial Terms 商業名詞 Day, Month And Year 年月日 Snacks and Desserts 點心和甜點心 Educational Issues 教育問題 Family Relations 親戚關係 Food and Drinks 食品和飲品 Fruits, Grains and Nuts 水果，糧食和果類 Geography: Major Cities 地理: 主要城市 Goverment Department 政府部門 Hospitals 醫院 Hotels and Guest Houses 酒店，賓館 Household Objects 家庭用具 Mass Media 大眾媒體 Meals: Noodle and Rice 餐食: 麵和飯 Medical and Medical Care 醫藥及醫療服務 Menu, Tea and Cantonese Dishes 菜單，茶和廣東菜 Money, Banking and Banks 金融，銀行業及銀行 Numbers 數字 Parts of Body 人體各部 Description of People 人類及人類百態 Preposition and Conjunction 前置詞與連接詞 Professions 職業 Seafood and Meats 海鮮與肉類 Signs and Directions 告示與方向 Sports 體育 Stationery 文具 Stores and Services 商業及服務業 Time 時間 Tools 工具 Transportation 運輸 Vegetables 蔬菜 Hong Kong Vista 香港觀光 You can get it from here (The 2nd item on the page): http://lp-group.com/store/cantonese.html However, I'd have to warn you that there are some mistakes in there. But the Cantonese audio is superb and everything is in an adobe acrobat file. I was interested to hear about the existence of 'Colloquial Cantonese and Putonghua Equivalents' as I didn't think there were any other Chinese vocab list book out there. However, after reading a review of it from here: http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/phorum/read.php?1,1534,1534#msg-1534 ...which reads "There are some flat out mistakes, like 搞得掂 being explained as "unable to do something." The English translations are terrible; at best they are merely a loose guide to the phrase's meaning, at worst they are incomprehensible. The romanization is some whack-ass system nobody uses anymore involving numbers and upside-down letters", it doesn't encourage me to get it. If there is a better book, then please let me know. I am particulary interested in Chinese vocab listed by categories, with Yale Romanization. I am particularly interested in a book with few mistakes, as there does not seem to be one in the market at the moment that gives me full confidence in doing Cantonese vocab self-study. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roddy Posted March 24, 2005 at 04:24 PM Report Share Posted March 24, 2005 at 04:24 PM I think I saw some Cantonese-Mandarin books last time I was in the BLCU bookstore. I'll have another look next time I'm in - should be at the weekend. Roddy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daydreamer Posted March 29, 2005 at 06:55 AM Report Share Posted March 29, 2005 at 06:55 AM Well, it's a Chinese language forum, but only want to get out of the topic for a little bit. I saw this title " How to learn vocabulary" So think of that.. Today when we had an English spoken course. The teacher(from UK) figured out one's mistake. She said it was not correct to say " How to spell ..." but should be " How do you spell ...". But we used to say " how to" a lot. And I saw this title, I think this is also written by a native speaker, are you? (I'm not sure, hehe) Well, so I want to ask if it's right to say " how to.." Or is it just because people put "do you" together and makes "to" because they sound alike? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quest Posted March 29, 2005 at 07:07 AM Report Share Posted March 29, 2005 at 07:07 AM "how to" is a fragment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gato Posted March 29, 2005 at 07:15 AM Report Share Posted March 29, 2005 at 07:15 AM Today when we had an English spoken course. The teacher(from UK) figured out one's mistake. She said it was not correct to say " How to spell ..." but should be " How do you spell ...". A complete sentence needs a subject and a verb. In your example, your teacher is using "you" as the subject and "do" as the verb. "How to spell" is a noun phrase, not a complete sentence. You can use it as a direct object of a verb, for example "I want to learn how to spell" with "how to spell" as the direct object of "learn." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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