Questions tagged [expressions]
Questions about more or less fixed expressions.
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How to say "totally it was a good day"?
How to say "totally it was a good day"?
Can I use 一共 for "totally"? For example: "一共我有了好天"?
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“哩勒公蝦毀” what does this mean?
What does “哩勒公蝦毀” mean? A Taiwanese guy said that to me after I had, accidently, mistyped two words in an idiom I used on him.
He also used an expression of surprise (I presume) which went like “蛤？！” ...
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How to show exasperation?
If I were to write "aiyaa, 这是太贵了!“
Wondering how to show exasperation in writing? Or how to write the aiyaa?
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What words or expressions could be used to say someone is/looks handsome? [closed]
Either words or expressions, formal ones or informal ones.
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What are the common ice-breaker sentences in Chinese?
There are sentences in English like "What's up?" "What's going on?" "how have you been?" to begin a conversation with or to greet people (friends or relatives)
So what are the common ice-breaker ...
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What word could you use to approach your friend in Chinese with?
Either close friends, family friends or fun/casual friends. E.g. "hey ... (close/family/fun friend), what are you up to?" I am looking for a word to replace the "close/family/fun friend" with.
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In what situations can one use 帥哥?
I do hear people say that a lot to me in China and I am always surprised by the timings and situations in which people just, kind of bluntly I feel, say this. I wonder what all those situations would ...
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Chinese equivalent of "I can honestly say..."
Is there a Chinese equivalent of "I can honestly say".
It's a rather colloquial expression, and I was wondering if there were something equivalent in Chinese to convey the same earnestness of the ...
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differentiation of 交女朋友 vs 找女朋友
For some reason i have these two muddled in my head. Presumably cause they sound similar.
Is it possible to 找了女朋友？
or does it have to be 交了女朋友
can it be 找着了女朋友？
Can someone clear this up for me.
...
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Male equivalent of 小三?
What's the male equivalent of 小三、二奶, etc.?
The closest thing I can think of is 小白脸 but it seems to be missing that certain something...
Mou某♦
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What's the title for addressing an unknown young person the same age as you?
For example, you are a 20 year old male/female. You are walking on the street, then you see a male stranger who seems to be the same age as your. He is in hurry, you see him drop his wallet. You pick ...
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"A pair of mandarin oranges" as a homophone of "the gold"
image courtesy of
Today, when Chinese people celebrate the New Year, there's a tradition to offer each other Mandarin oranges. As many sources say, the Mandarin oranges should be offered in pairs, ...
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Chinese idiom for "tilt at windmills" or "fighting against windmills"
Is there a Chinese idiom for "tilting at windmills"?
This expressions stems from "The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha". In that book, Don Quixote attacks windmills, ...
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How to use 如 to make comparisons or analogies
I see this come up sometimes in idioms, and I find it easy to understand but not easy to use(1) Is it used to spoken comparisons or analogies? Or is it only for literary, formal, fixed expression? If ...
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The mysterious role of 占 in 对占人口绝大多数的民众来说，还是觉得有钱应该省着花
I know that 占 means "to occupy/to take up".
But in this following sentence, I can not figure out what it adds to the meaning as a whole:
"对占人口绝大多数的民众来说，还是觉得有钱应该省着花"
If I take "zhan" away, would ...
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V + 到。。。。头上来: Exact meaning and how to use?
I know that the abovementioned formula expresses a negative result, but I am not exactly sure how to translate it. Some questions:
1 How to translate it well into English?
2 Can I use it ...
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Why are intermediate cardinal directions read differently in Chinese?
I am referring to the fact that in English, we say "northeast", whereas in Chinese, the equivalent direction is called 东北, which literally translates to "east-north". One could say the same about "...
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How to say "politically correct" or "political correctness" in Chinese?
A lot posts online use 政治正确 to mean "politically correct" or "political correctness" in English and I can say it is wrong. A few posts use 政治委婉语, but it doesn't sound good to me either, because 政治 in ...
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Is the expression 学识渊博 usually used in a pejorative sense?
For example, as a sarcastic remark in the sense of "pedantic" or "know-it-all"?
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Are there online resources for learning the Chongqing dialect?
I'd like to learn the Chongqing dialect or chongqinghua. If anyone can help me to find resources like phrasebooks, differences with putonghua, or any article on this topic, I would be thankful.
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How to express "same shit, different names" in Mandarin?
I was recently discussing computer games with a friend and realised that I don't know how to express "same shit, different names" in Chinese. We were talking about DotA, LoL and similar games. If I ...
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Meaning of 漂漂亮亮地参加晚会
I saw this sentence on a textbook:
漂漂亮亮地参加晚会
Without more context information, what is the translation of that sentence?
I think it has a meaning of "(a girl) dress up beautifully before going ...
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Do 看一看 and 瞧一瞧 have the same meaning?
Is 看一看 equal to 瞧一瞧 in meaning?
Are they interchangeable?
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Difference between 好累 and 很累
我很累。
我好累。
What's the difference between those sentences? Both seems to mean "I'm tired".
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Informal ways of beginning/ending an e-mail
I have been writing quite a few e-mails recently and I feel that I want to expand my vocabulary regarding acceptable phrases to use both at the beginning and end of an e-mail. When I say informal, I ...
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Meaning of 我知道的就这么多了 [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Translation of “this much and no more”
I found this sentence on Tatoeba:
我知道的就這麼多了。 (Simplified Chinese: 我知道的就这么多了。)
Beyond this I know nothing.
I mistakenly ...
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Meaning of 一人付一半 in 车费我们俩一人付一半，怎么样？
In this sentence:
车费我们俩一人付一半，怎么样？
I don't fully understand the meaning of 一人付一半.
I have found that 付一半 can mean "pay half", but 一人 confuses me (if it refers to one person, why is that form used ...
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How to ask "is it really so that..."?
How do I ask a question like "is it really so that you're just 18?" or "is it really so that the movie was good?", i.e. a surprised question?
My guess is something along the lines of "这是真的，你只有十八岁呢?", ...
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Correct usage for 跟。。。过不去
This question has two parts:
What's the precise meaning of this expression?
What is the correct usage?
Question (1) I understand it to mean that the person referred to (eg, 跟她过不去) is uncomfortable ...
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Proper response to 不好意思
If someone make a mistake and say this:
不好意思，非常不好意思！
What is the proper response?
Should 没事 or 没关系 be used to reply?
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Temperature around 0°C
How to say that the lowest temperature will be around 0°C (e.g. -1°C ~ 1°C)?
My attempt is:
最低气温会成0°C左右。
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What is the best Chinese equivalent for "passion" or "to be passionate about something"?
In English, it is common to say you are "passionate about something" or "something is your passion" (e.g. My passion is rockclimbing).
This use of 'passion' is different to 'passion' as in ...
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Saying "I have to go" in chat
Today I was chatting online with a Chinese person. I wanted to say "I have to go" to end the conversation and disconnect, so I wrote this:
我得走了
but I don't know if there is a better sentence. Or ...
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What is an appropriate translations of "That's so Raven!"?
The phrase in the title comes from a Disney show, That's so Raven. But in my house, we have been confused on the proper way of translating this.
now we are saying "这是大Raven!" with extra emphasis on ...
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How should one translate "祝你年年有今日，歲歲有今朝" into English?
On my birthday a friend wished me "祝你年年有今日，歲歲有今朝". I can understand each of the individual words in this phrase, but the overall meaning is somewhat less clear to me (although I have some ideas about ...
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Take away (when ordering food): is it 带走 or 打包?
I was told that when you are ordering food you can say either 带走 or 打包.
However, when you are not ordering food and you mean "take this away", then you use 拿走。
Is there a difference in context or ...
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How did 东西 come to mean "something" in the expression "吃东西"?
I was chatting with a Chinese penpal recently and when I asked "what are you doing?", I received the following answer:
吃东西，你呢？
Now, "东西" means "east and west" and so "吃东西" literally means "eat/...
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Why is tofu used in 心急吃不了热豆腐？
Why is tofu, among all foods that can be enjoyed hot, used in the expression "心急吃不了热豆腐"? Why not "心急吃不了热饭" or "心急吃不了热牛肉"？
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Which expression do native speakers actually use: Chinese New Year or Spring Festival (or other)?
In relation to the Chinese New Year (or Spring Festival) I've heard different names, as you can see from what I just wrote.
In Chinese we have:
春節 / 春节 = Spring Festival
Chūn jié
農曆新年 / 农历新年 = ...
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Is the cantonese expression 五福臨門 present in Mandarin too?
A recent question prompted me to look for expressions related to the Chinese New Year and, among them, I found one that particularly stroke me as interesting:
五福臨門 = according to the poster it means:...
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What and where is the connection between 压岁钱 and the character 岁 that appears in it?
During the Chinese New Year celebration, one of the various traditions is to give money to younger people in red envelopes. Usually they are given from elderly married couples to younger couples or ...
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Difference between 曾经 and 已经
In this question I was asking about 曾经 and one answer says it means 'already'.
What's the difference between 曾经 and 已经?
Do the two sentences below have the same meaning?
他曾经在北京学过两年汉语。
他已经在北京学过两年汉语。
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Why is 面熟 used after 人 in 常常看着一个人面熟却叫不出名字来?
In my textbook I found this sentence:
常常看着一个人面熟却叫不出名字来。
If 面熟 is an adjective, why is it used after 人 (to indicate a "familiar-looking person")?
Can 一个人面熟 be rewritten to 一个面熟人 without modifying ...
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Why does the construction of 要是…的话 mean "if"?
I know other words like 如果 also mean "if", but why would 要是...的话 mean "if"?
An example sentence:
要是你喜欢汉语（的话），你该听中国的音乐。
If you like Chinese, you should listen to Chinese music.
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What is the status of 什么来的 and 什么来着 in standard and colloquial Mandarin Chinese?
When I first moved to the south of China, I was surprised to hear the phrase "什么来的" used to mean "what," as in
这是什么来的？: "What is this?"
As far as I could tell, in many cases there was no ...
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What is the meaning of 相声?
Today I read a blog post talking about a Canadian guy called Mark Rowswell (aka 大山) that appears on Chinese TV shows and who is able to do 相声. This 相声 is referred to as "the art of language".
What ...
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What does 厉害 mean, and in what context does it mean what?
This has to be one of the more ambiguous words I have struggled with.
厉害 can be:
very well performed = 玩得很厉害;
harsh = 骂得很厉害;
severe = 生病得很厉害;
probably a bunch of other stuff...
Can anyone give a ...
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What's the difference between 遇到 and 碰到?
Both 遇到 and 碰到 can be translated to "come across/run into" in those sentences:
遇到大学同学了。
碰到大学同学了。
What's the difference between 遇到 and 碰到?
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Meaning of 这么多好吃
I want to get the correct meaning of this sentence:
我恨不得一下子把这么多好吃的都吃完。
I understand this sentence as "I wish to eat up all those delicious things, all at once". I don't fully understand the ...
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Which website/service can give good example sentences in Chinese? [duplicate]
Often when learning new words, I want to see them in context. It helps my learning process, and understanding how to properly use new vocab makes it stick in my mind that much more.
Does anyone have ...