Articles About the Chinese Language

How to say "air-to-ground missile" in Mandarin Chinese

Let’s start with the word 导, pronounced dao3, which means “lead; guide; channel; transmit; conduct; instruct, direct (as in a performance)”.

You may know this word from the word for “tour guide”, which is 导游 [= dao3 you2]. This is just “guide” + the word 游, which means “travel”. (Note that 游 can also mean “part of a river” or “to associate with”, which doesn’t make sense, but hey, why not.)

Ok, so now let’s add the word 弹, pronounced dan4, which means “ball; pellet; bullet; shell; bomb”. The combination is 导弹, dao3dan4, which means “guided missle”. (Now we’re making progress.)

The next few words you need are pretty easy ones:

• 空 = kong1 = “empty; hollow; void; unoccupied; air; sky; in vain; for nothing; to no avail”
  
•  地 = di4 = “the earth; land; soil; fields; surface; ground; floor; place; locality; position; situation; room; background; distance” Finally, you need the word
  
• 对 = dui4 = “reply; answer; treat; cope with; confront; be trained on; to face; bring into contact; suit agree; fit; compare; set; right; correct; add; mix; adulterate; divide into halves; pair; couple; concerning; regarding” This is one of those words that means just about everything in the right context. But one of the pretty standard uses is “oriented towards” or “with respect to” or “facing”.
  

Now you can put all this together and you get:

空对地导弹 = kong1 dui4 di4 dao3 dan4 = “emptiness facing earth guide bomb” = air-to-surface guided missile !!

You can create some obvious variants on this phrase. How about:

• 地对空导弹 = surface-to-air guided missile (just switch di4 and kong1)
  
•  空对水下导弹 = air-to-underwater guided missile (just add 水= shui3 = water, and 下 = xia4 = under, and you get 水下 = shui3xia4 = underwater).
  

Now that you’ve got the pattern, what other kinds of guided missiles can you invent and work into your next conversation in Mandarin?

Chinese pop: You are so awesome. Great version of 對面的女孩看過來.

The refrain is 對面的女孩看過來.

對面 = dui4 mian4 = "across from"

的 = de0 = [posessive particle]

女孩 = nu3 hai2 = girl.

Put these three together and you get:

對面的女孩 = girl sitting across from me.

看 = kan4 = look

過來 = gou4 lai2 = over here, or sometimes come.

All together, it means "girl sitting across from me: look over here!".

The other amazing refrain is

我左看右看上看下看原來每个女孩都不简单

The translation is:

我 = wo3 = I

左看 = zuo3 kan4 = look left

右看 = you4 kan4 = look right

上看 = shang4 kan4 = look up

下看 = xia4 kan4 = look down

原來 = yaun3 lai2 = from the beginning

每 = mei3 = beautiful

个 = ge2 = [measure word, here applying the adjective "beautiful" to the girl]

女孩 = nu3 hai2 = girl

都 = dou1 = completely

不简单 = bu4 jian3 dan1 = not simple 

我左看右看上看下看原來每个女孩都不简单 = i look left, i look right, i look up, i look down, but from the beginning that girl is totally not simple!

How to say "kill yourself" in Chinese and use it in conversation.

The word for "self" (or "yourself", or "myself") is 自己 = zi4 ji3. Like many Chinese words, this is a compound phrase made up of two words that both mean the same exact thing as the compound phrase. (Gee, thanks for being such a simple language, Mandarin.)

So for "kill yourself", you drop the 己 and add the word 沙 = sha1.

Then you get "kill yourself", which is 自沙!! (zi4 sha1.)

Now, assuming you are not depressed or suicidal (if you are, please seek professional counseling and stop reading blogs about Chinese), you might wonder how you'll use this phrase in conversation. Not to worry, here's a tried and true technique:

You may already know the word 得 = de0 = sentence particle used after a verb to show effect/degree or possiblility. That's good. You need it now. The way to think of the meaning is "to the point or degree of".

A usual pattern using 得 is:

[something] 是 [verb] 得 [adjective indicating degree]. For example, if you want to say "dumplings are really delicious" you could say:

饺子是好吃得很.

The words here are

• 饺子 = jiao3zi0 = dumplings
• 是 = shi4 = are
• 好 = hao3 = good, 吃 = chi1 = eat; 好吃 = delicious
• 得 = well... you know... the weird word I just defined above
  
• 很  = hen3 = very/really

In effect the sentence can be thought of as "dumplings are delicious to the degree of really" or "dumplings are delicious to the point of being really delicious". With me? Good.

Now substitute "kill yourself" for "really", and add the word 想 =xiang3 = "think/want" before it, and you get:

饺子是好吃得想 自沙!

This means "dumplings are delicious to the point that I want to kill myself!"

Q.E.D.

I should admit at this point that I have no idea if this is in any way grammatically correct Chinese. But I can all but guarantee that in the right circumstances a Chinese person is likely to understand what you mean and bust up laughing!!

(Note: It is likely your Chinese teacher will not see the humor in this sentence structure.)

Playboy runs wild in China

I thought it was a bit strange when a conservative Chinese woman walked by wearing a playboy shirt. But then I thought, hey: it aint no weirder than the lady I saw outside the subway with a shirt that said "certified sex expert". Hmmm. I'm not sure she quite knew what that meant. But that's no worse than the Americans I see around with Chinese tatoos that make no sense. But I digress.

I bought this sweet Playboy belt buckle in China:

I figured hey - if "normal" Chinese people can wear it, so can I.

Then I bought this backpack:

Man were my friends jealous.

it turns out playboy is a different brand in China. It's pronounced hua1 hua1 gong1 zi0; 花 花 公 子. And it has absolutely nothing to do with our beloved Playboy in the US.