Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

--- format:syntax [2007/05/05 09:18] – dennis
+++ format:syntax [2025/05/31 06:01] (current) – mdbg
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-====== Syntax ======
+~~REDIRECT>:syntax~~
-The basic format of a CEDICT entry is:
-<code>
-Traditional Simplified [pin1 yin1] /English equivalent 1/equivalent 2/
-</code>
-For example:
-<code>
-中國 中国 [Zhong1 guo2] /China/Middle Kingdom/
-</code>
-Additionally:
-  * The Chinese word should consist of one or more Chinese characters, without any spaces in it
-  * The Mandarin pinyin should follow in the format below:
-    * It should have a space between each pinyin syllable
-    * Each pinyin syllable should have a tone number. Use 5 for the light tone (e.g. ni3 hao3 ma5)
-    * Raw tones should be used:
-      * Tone sandhi is **not** indicated (e.g., ni3 hao3 is not changed to ni2 hao3)
-      * Although "yi" and "bu" have various modifications in tone, depending on what follows them, these are **not** indicated in writing (e.g., "one horse" is pronounced "yi4 pi3 ma3" but written "yi1 pi3 ma3", and "not enough" is pronounced "bu2 gou4" but written "bu4 gou4")
-      * Word-related changes to neutral tone, however, **are** indicated. These are especially common with reduplicated forms (e.g., use ma1 ma5, not ma1 ma1; ba4 ba5, not ba4 ba4; kan4 kan5, not kan4 kan4; xiang3 xiang5 ("take under consideration"), not xiang3 xiang3). This isn't limited to reduplicated forms, e.g., ming2 bai5, not ming2 bai2; cong1 ming5, not cong1 ming2.\\ It's best to keep in mind that Pinyin is about Mandarin words, not Chinese characters.
-    * For pinyin that uses the ü, represent it with a u followed by a colon (e.g. nu:3 ren2)
-    * Capitalize pinyin for proper nouns (e.g. **B**ei3 jing1)
-  * The English definitions should be separated with the '/' character (e.g. /English equivalent 1/equivalent 2/).
-  * American English should be used for the English definitions
-  * Do not add definite or indefinite articles (e.g. "a", "an", "the", etc) to English nouns unless they are necessary to distinguish the word from another usage type or homonym