Headwords, phrases and idioms
The dictionary includes approximately 25,000 headwords, all of which are printed in color.
Homographs, which are different words of the same spelling, are listed as separate headwords and are indicated by number, e.g.
seal¹ N 海豹 hǎibào [M. WD 头 tóu]
seal² V 封闭 fēngbì
…
seal³ N 印章 yìnzhāng, 图章 túzhāng [M. WD 枚 méi]
Irregular plural forms of nouns and irregular past tense and past participles of verbs are given in brackets immediately following the headwords, e.g.
man (PL men)
do (PT did; PP done)
When a Chinese noun requires a special measure word, it is shown in square brackets, e.g.
earphones N 耳机 ěrjī [M. WD 副 fù]
Where no measure word is supplied, it indicates that the noun may be used with the default measure word 个 gè.
This dictionary also includes around 8,000 phrases and idioms which are printed in color. This increases the lexical items to about 40,000, which is highly adequate for general professional discourse as well as everyday communication.
Phonetic notation of the Chinese language
In order to help the user properly pronounce the Chinese in this dictionary, every Chinese word, phrase and sentence is transliterated using pinyin which is the standard phonetic notation used nowadays. The Pronunciation section in Introducing Chinese demonstrates how to pronounce Chinese words with the help of this notation scheme. There are many free online resources which may be of use to those who wish to practice their pronunciation.
Definitions
Definitions for all headwords are given in their Chinese equivalents or near-equivalents. These Chinese words were chosen from the word lists taken from the world-recognized HSK Chinese Language Proficiency Examination. For a more complete reference regarding these word lists, you may wish to consult Tuttle Chinese-English Dictionary (2009).
When a word is used in more than one grammatical category, the different parts of speech are indicated by I, II, etc, and different meanings are listed by 1, 2, etc. For example:
document I N 1 文件 wénjiàn 2 （计算机）文件／文档 (jìsuànjī) wénjiàn/wéndàng II V 1 记录 jìlù 2 [事实+] 证明 [shìshí+] zhèngmíng
When a word has a distinct meaning in a particular phrase, that phrase is shown in brackets within the particular part of speech, e.g.
wolf
…
V (to wolf down) 狼狼吞虎咽 lángtūn hǔyān, 狼狼吞虎咽地吃 lángtūn hǔyān de chī
In many cases common collocations are supplied in square brackets, e.g.
lofty ADJ 1 崇高的 [+理想] chónggāo de [+lǐxiǎng] 2 高傲的 [+人] gāo’ào de [+rén], 傲慢的 àomàn de
This means that when lofty has the sense of 崇高的 (“idealistic”) it is commonly collocated with 理想 (“thinking”), and that when it means 高傲的 (“snobbish”), it is usually followed by 人 (“people”).
Brackets are used to indicate that an element is optional, e.g.
crew N 1（飞机）机组人员 (fēijī) jīzǔ rényuán, …
This indicates that crew may be 机组人员 jīzǔ rényuán or 飞机机组人员 fēijī jīzǔ rényuán (“aircrew”).
Example sentences
An important feature of this dictionary is the large number of example sentences with Chinese translations, about 10,000 in all. In many respects, this dictionary can be regarded as an “example sentence dictionary”. These sentences not only illustrate the meanings and usages of the more common words in English and Chinese, but also provide “ready-made” materials for instant communication and essay writing, for example. Each sentence is carefully composed to reflect the real life of the English-speaking world in order to assist the user in everyday matters, school or at work. Sentences from a wide variety of subject matters are included, and there is a good emphasis on the business and education realms as well as home life.
Grammar codes
| ABBREV | abbreviation |
| ADJ | adjective |
| ADV | adverb |
| CONJ | conjunction |
| INTERJ | interjection |
| M. WD | measure word |
| N | noun |
| NUM | numeral |
| PL | plural form |
| PP | past participle |
| PREP | preposition |
| PRON | pronoun |
| PT | past tense |
| V | verb |
Introducing Chinese
1 PRONUNCIATION
1.1 Vowels
SINGLE VOWELS
There are seven basic single vowels:
| a | similar to a in ah |
| e | similar to a in ago |
| ě | similar to e in ebb (this sound never occurs alone and is transcribed as e, as in ei, ie, ue) |
| i | similar to ee in cheese (spelled y when not preceded by a consonant) |
| o | similar to oe in toe |
| u | similar to oo in boot (spelled w when not preceded by a consonant) |
| ü | similar to German ü in über or French u in tu; or you can get ü by saying i and rounding your lips at the same time (spelled u after j, q, x; spelled yu when not preceded by a consonant) |
VOWEL COMBINATIONS
These single vowels combine with each other or with the consonants of n or ng to form what are technically known as diphthongs. These combinations are pronounced as a single sound, with a little more emphasis on the first part of the sound.
You can learn these combinations in four groups:
| Group 1: | diphthongs starting with a/e/ě | |
| ai | similar to y in my | |
| ao | similar to ow in how | |
| an | ||
| ang | ||
| en | ||
| eng | ||
| ei | similar to ay in may |
| Group 2: | diphthongs starting with i | |
| ia | ||
| ie | similar to ye in yes | |
| iao | ||
| iou | similar to you (spelled iu when preceded by a consonant) | |
| ian | ||
| ien | similar to in (spelled in when preceded by a consonant) | |
| ieng | similar to En in English (spelled ing when preceded by a consonant) | |
| iang | similar to young | |
| iong |
| Group 3: | diphthongs starting with u/o | |
| ua | ||
| uo | ||
| uai | similar to why in British English | |
| uei | similar to way (spelled ui when preceded by a consonant) | |
| uan | ||
| uen | (spelled un when preceded by a consonant) | |
| ueng | ||
| uang | ||
| ong |
| Group 4: | diphthongs starting with ü | |
| üe | used only after j, q, x; spelled ue | |
| üen | used only after j, q, x; spelled un | |
| üan | used only after j, q, x; spelled uan |
1.2