Pinyin entry?

[Admin]

How important is translation of pinyin?

If pinyin translation is valuable, is it ok to require the tone numeral (ie: shi4 = 是 ), or is that unknown sometimes?

[LKRaider]

I value pinyin translation, because I am a chinese student, it is very helpful to me.

I would prefer it to display the tonal marks as accents, tho, instead of numbers.
I understand not all computers may show the tonal marks correctly, so maybe adding it as an option would be a good idea.

For more info about it, check www.pinyin.info/unicode/unicode_test.html
(as a note, Lower-case and Upper-case "individually numbered entities" work perfectly for me)

[Sey]

How about making it so that you type the pinyin in the bar and it translates for you?

[Admin]

Thanks for the link to the pinyin accents page.

Does anyone prefer using tonal numbers to the accents, or are the accents always the better choice?

Re: pinyin entry: yes, any number of entry options are good, including a new dedicated text entry box in the toolbar.
The question is how important is it. Maybe I should make a new poll...

[Robespierre]

This thread is a bit old but ..... to answer your question, I think the number is WAY better than the accent (myself). I personally prefer that no number means a "1" for first tone and then you add 2, 3, or 4 where appropriate. I think it is probably easier though if the user types pinyin and then chooses characters for translation rather than using the pinyin itself. There are too many times that straight pinyin can be misunderstood by any program since there are so many homonyms that mean different things.

[nidusavis]

Hi, I'v found a mistake in 抱歉 's pinyin, this must be "bao qian", but it shows "bao quan". plz fix it. thx

[Admin]

Looks like the dictionary updates already got that fix (in version 1.3)

: 抱歉 抱歉 [baò qiàn] /be sorry/feel apologetic/regret/
抱 抱 [baò] /to hold/to carry (in one's arms)/to hug or embrace/surround/cherish/
歉 歉 [qiàn] /apologize/deficient/to regret/
(抱=0x62B1) M: BAO4 C: POU5 BOU6 embrace, hold in arms, enfold


And corrections to the CEDICT dictionary can be submitted here:
www.mandarintools.com/submit.html

[Bazza]

I've noticed recently that the position of the tone marks on some of the pinyin seem to be above the wrong vowels.

Is there anything that can be done about this?

[Admin]

What characters, and where should the marks be?

[Bazza]

I think there is probably a lot, HanziBar always seem to have the tone mark above the last vowel in the syllable, but that's not always case. Here is a few examples I've found:

小 [xiaŏ] should be xiǎo
找 [zhaŏ] should be zhǎo
高 [gaō] should be gāo
来 [laí] should be lái
买 [maĭ] should be mǎi

Apparently the tone mark should be above the dominant vowel sound.

[Admin]

Fixed: 1.5b, to match rules according to Wikipedia:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin#Rules_for_placing_the_tone_mark

[Bazza]

Excellent, nice one. ;D