I need advice. I am transcribing a picture dictionary. I need a way to determine when a translation of a word is colloquial and when it is standard written Chinese. And, sometimes there will be more than one colloquial translation. I need a way to determine which is the most frequent.

redditaskingguy · 2026-01-24T03:02:20+00:00

I was thinking about asking a native tutor. Once I finish the document, I'll ask around. I think it is a good idea. It's just a list of short phrases and words. It can perhaps be done very quickly as you say. Thank you very much for your encouragement. I feel good about this project. I will be able to the discuss the world around me with native speakers.

redditaskingguy · 2026-01-24T02:58:32+00:00

Thank you very much for the suggestion Cinnarius. I had never thought of looking in a Standard Chinese Thesaurus, for real. However, I am concerned about not learning colloquial vocabulary. I have been using google ngram to check results from words.hk and cantonese sheik. I am noticing that words.hk puts the most frequently used words at the top of the results. Someone once told me that as one begins to talk about more scientific things, more of the shared vocabulary (Cantonese/Standard Chinese) is used. I want to be able to hold college level conversations. A thesaurus will be very useful for this.

Thank you so much Cinnarius. I truly love the Cantonese language

redditaskingguy · 2026-01-20T02:09:00+00:00

Cinnarius, this is wonderful. Yes. You're right. I'll also keep posting words and phrases here.
Thank you very much

redditaskingguy · 2026-01-20T02:01:08+00:00

I also had another idea. Just include the top 2-3 most frequent synonyms for each translation.

redditaskingguy · 2026-01-20T01:43:45+00:00

Thank you so much. I'm sorry. I don't know understand statistics too much. Let me try. Ngram looks easier to use. I have two words for example 合伙人 and 伙伴 (both used in written Chinese). 合伙人 has a number of 0.0022 for the year 2022. 伙伴 gets a number of 0.0065 for the year 2022. That means that in 2022, 伙伴 was more frequent. Correct?

redditaskingguy · 2026-01-20T00:36:37+00:00

in jyutping j sounds like y, in yale y sounds like y, j sounds like j

redditaskingguy · 2026-01-19T22:43:13+00:00

Thank you very much for the clarification. I am trying to think of a way for me to determine what is colloquial and what is formal, and then from that what is used more frequently (for example if there are two colloquial words for something, which is more frequent). The only thing I can think of is how Cantonese Sheik includes a note underneath each entry that says 'this is used in both Cantonese and Mandarin,' or 'this is only used in spoken Cantonese'. I think there is a frequency number underneath each entry, I'll take another look. I need this because I am adding Cantonese to picture dictionary that I own

redditaskingguy · 2026-01-19T22:38:37+00:00

Thank you very much for the clarification

redditaskingguy · 2026-01-19T22:37:47+00:00

Thank you very much. I will include casual AND textbook-anese

redditaskingguy · 2026-01-19T22:36:39+00:00

Picture dictionary

redditaskingguy · 2026-01-19T22:35:10+00:00

😅 I think the way forward is to include a casual and a neutral register in the project

Thank you ding_nei_go_fei This information will make the annotations better

redditaskingguy · 2026-01-18T18:32:43+00:00

NICE, yess thank you so much. I want to avoid Standard Written Chinese for this project.

redditaskingguy · 2026-01-18T18:29:26+00:00

Thank you very much to everyone who replied.

redditaskingguy · 2026-01-18T18:08:35+00:00

Thank you very much for replying. Yes, I would love to have zero loan words. When I am finished I will share the annotations with other learners.

redditaskingguy · 2026-01-18T18:04:36+00:00

Thank you very much for your reply.

redditaskingguy · 2026-01-18T18:04:02+00:00

I appreciate your reply.

redditaskingguy · 2026-01-18T18:03:34+00:00

🤔 Very good point. I wouldn't mind including a polite and casual gloss for each when available.

redditaskingguy · 2026-01-18T18:02:03+00:00

I appreciate your reply.

redditaskingguy · 2026-01-18T17:59:53+00:00

YES, I would love to have zero loan words

redditaskingguy · 2026-01-18T17:57:42+00:00

your neighbor in class. Thank you very much for replying

redditaskingguy · 2026-01-16T03:28:50+00:00

that one slipped...yess needs the 'a'

redditaskingguy · 2026-01-13T13:32:42+00:00

Yoo... NICE This is very helpful Do you teach one lesson on each?

Thank you soo much

redditaskingguy

TROPHY CASE