Here are all of the 秘诀 | posts we’ve published:
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Chinese Learner’s Checklist: 10 Things Everybody Gets Wrong
As a Chinese teacher, over the years I’ve come to see t…
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‘Cutesy’ Chinese: The Art of 撒娇
I haven’t posted in a while, because life has been supe…
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The General Pattern of Chinese Word Order & the Pre-Verbal / Post-Verbal Split
So whilst Deliveroo is processing my order, I thought i…
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Some Thoughts on the Polysemy of Chinese Verbs
Whereas in English, the meanings of verbs tend to come …
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‘Me and You’ or ‘You and Me’?
A quick one for today. The other day I heard an Indones…
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土澳 Tǔ’Ào – Affectionate Pet Name or Derogatory Slur?
Okay, so I’ve got a bit of a bee in my bonnet (so unlik…
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Fun: Ambiguity
I love the ambiguity in this picture. It’s from the cov…
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Fun: Hakka Dialect Possessive Pronouns
If you ever wanted to learn Hakka dialect (客家话) from a …
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How Chinese, Japanese and Korean Numbers Sound the Same
Hi guys! 好久不见！ I thought I’d tide you over with a short…
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Like or not? Like! Like then buy! Not buy – where have money?? Regardless have or not, like then buy.
I’m pretty pleased with the title ^_^, haha. Today I wa…
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10,000 Steps & Wishes (Plus a little bit of linguistic determinism)
A quick fun fact for the day. There is actually NO evid…
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‘Thank you’ in Various Asian Languages
Sudden revelation! In Chinese, the usual way to say ‘th…
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Linguistics Trivia
Some random linguistics trivia: ✩ ‘Saturday’ comes from…
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Phrases: Whistful Words
Hey all. For various reasons I’m feeling a bit wistful …
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Calligraphic Adventures @Daiso
Here are some more of my calligraphic adventures with a…
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Calligraphy: 情
Must be getting romantic in my old age. Me trying out m…
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的: What DE Heck?!!
Today’s post is about a really fundamental Chinese part…
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有的 / 没的 + verb
Today’s tip is about a structure often heard in colloqu…
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Phrase: 千里之行 始于足下
‘a journey of 1000 miles begins with the first step’
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42 Ways to Say Goodbye
How many ways do you know how to say ‘goodbye’ in Chine…
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Tips Miniseries (9/9): Pre-Verbal Objects
Okay, heads up, this is a tricky one. There’s a secret,…
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Tips Miniseries (8/9): Duration Structure
I can’t tell you how many times I see students get thei…
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Tips Miniseries (7/9): Topic-Comment Structure
A distinctly Chinese sentence structure is the TOPIC-CO…
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Tips Miniseries (6/9): Slashing the ‘是’
In the same way that English-speaking students often us…
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Tips Miniseries (5/9): Where to put ‘what’
Do you know the rule for where question words like 什么、谁…
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Tips Miniseries (4/9): Keep Your Pronouns to Yourself, Please
As you are probably aware, Chinese very much likes to a…
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Tips Miniseries (3/9): Aspect Marking of the MAIN Verb Only
Chinese aspect-markers like 了、过 and 着 show the temporal…
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Tips Miniseries (2/9): 嗯
If you want to truly sound like a CHINESE Chinese, ther…
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Tips Miniseries (1/9): Rude Politeness
Less of the 请, less of the 谢谢, less of the 您贵姓 – please…
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Tips Miniseries: 9 More Tips to Make Your Chinese More Authentic
Hey all! In a previous post, I gave you 5 fairly simple…
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5 Tips to Make Your Chinese More Authentic
Hey all! Let me share with you 5 really easy to impleme…
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The 把 Structure
Everyone loves the 把-structure….don’t they?? *silence*.…
中文秘诀 | The Secret of Chinese 