Good Characters, Inc. Blog

GE is translated by meaning to Chinese as 通用 (General) 电气 (Electric).

通用 (tong yong) means to be in common use, all-purpose, or to be used universally.

Microsoft is translated to Chinese by meaning as 微软 (wei ruan), simplified, or 微軟, traditional characters.

微 (wei) is minute, tiny, or slight.
软 (ruan) is soft. It can be seen as short for 軟體 (ruan ti) meaning software.

The character 微 (wei) means not only small, but also has connotations of profound and delicate, as in 微妙 (wei miao), subtle, delicate, and 精微 (jing wei), small and refined, subtle. 微 (wei) also sounds the same as 唯 (wei), meaning only or alone. Therefore, by sound 微軟 could also bring out the association of 唯軟, suggesting “the supremacy of software (v.s. hardware or anything else)” or “the best software company.”

Coca-Cola is transliterated as ke kou ke le, meaning tasty and joyful. A classic case of transliteration that brings out positive meanings for a brand.

• 可 (ke) means to approve or  to permit.
• 口 (kou) is mouth.

Together, 可口 (ke kou) means delicious, nice, tasty, pleasant to the palate, dainty.

• And again, 可 (ke) means to approve or to permit.
• 乐 (le) means joyous or happy.

可乐 (ke le) is like the abbreviation of 可以 (ke yi), can, 快樂 (kuai ke), happy.