Horse horse tiger tiger: slang and idioms

[michaelcrm]

never heard about "ni hen ji che"

[Guest cavebear]

Mahu is a Mogolian ( or some other nomadic people) term for "so-so" " barely pass". Chinese used the characters 马虎 to record the pronumciation.

Northern Chinese is a mix up of original Han and all the nomadic people from the north, like Turks, Huns, Mongolians, etc. It is reflected in the the language.

[smithsgj]

never heard about "ni hen ji che"

That's because it's mostly used in Taiwan.

[skylee]

never heard about "ni hen ji che"

That's because it's mostly used in Taiwan.

What is "ji che" in characters?

[smithsgj]

機車 (scooter: in normal usage a more specific and more formal term than motuoche)

[cometrue]

A person who goes to bed late is a ye4mao1zi, ye is night and we all know the maozi, a cap...something you put on your head, if you like to work late at night you can say wo3ai4kai1ye4che1 which is quite funny if you take the meaning word by word: I like to drive at night the car. These are coloquial.

maozi isn't cap,but 猫子, we use 夜猫子(ye4 mao1 zi3) to say the owl, i.e. 猫头鹰(mao1 tou2 ying1)

[cometrue]

oops' date=' that's a typo, not a pinyin mistake. but i'm pretty sure the phrasing part of it comes from the Cantonese slang phrase.

Ni gao cuo le is simply 'you've made a mistake'.

but people have been using it (at least that I've heard) with the cantonese inflection - meaning "You've have got to be kidding me"

"ni gao cuo le" wasn't from cantonese, just as roddy said, it means u've made a mistake! but "ni you mei you gao cuo?" is from cantonese, means "u r kidding, arent you?" or as same as 你有病啊?(ni3 you3 bing4 a4?) "do you have got illness? " means "u are so disgusting!"

[cometrue]

Ah...that does make sense. The person didn't write it for me, and you know how accents in these rural southern areas are. N's turn to L's, r's get dropped, ah's turn to ai's, tones stop being used, and an old lady telling me how to say "menstruation" obviously makes her j's sound like b's.

dont confuse everyone here! sure in some area, they say N as L, but the j wont never be pronounced as B in any parts of china!

[cometrue]

Also -

manwhore - 男妓 (literally)

playboy - 花花公子 (I think this is exactly the name of the megazine)

addition

we do say 男妓 or pimp as 鸭(ya1) , for example, 他是做鸭的or 他是个鸭 means he is a pimp.

[cometrue]

i meant "给他个 colour see see".

that being " 给他个颜色看看" meaning to beat someone up.

man was that a stupid botch up...

we usually say 给他"点"颜色看看

[skylee]

In cantonese,

雞 = prostitute

鴨 = man whore (but I thought 鴨 meaning anything in the sex industry was a Cantonese expression)

馬伕 = 扯皮條 = pimp

[Quest]

In cantonese' date='

雞 = prostitute

鴨 = man whore (but I thought 鴨 meaning anything in the sex industry was a Cantonese expression)

馬伕 = 扯皮條 = pimp[/quote']

or 姑爷仔 for pimp.

[markalexander100]

Ah...that does make sense. The person didn't write it for me' date=' and you know how accents in these rural southern areas are. N's turn to L's, r's get dropped, ah's turn to ai's, tones stop being used, and an old lady telling me how to say "menstruation" obviously makes her j's sound like b's.[/quote']

dont confuse everyone here! sure in some area, they say N as L, but the j wont never be pronounced as B in any parts of china!

I think what channa heard was 月病 ; not in my Chinese dictionary, but it's used by Chinese Thais.

[Shi Rui'en]

Along the lines of 7's and 8's is one I recently heard. Luan(4)qiba(1)zao(1) with a meaning that everything is "sevens and eights" or just all mixed up. I know in english I can remember my grandmother saying everything is sixes and sevens so where the sevens and eights come from I do not know. My textbook may just be really old...I learned about Russia as Su(2)Lian the other day instead of e(2)guo.

[skylee]

蘇聯 (Sulian) = the Soviet Union (USSR, which no longer exists)

俄國 (Eguo) / 俄羅斯(Eluosi) = Russia

[smithsgj]

And 亂七八糟 luanqibazao is perfectly colloquial and modern.

[Guest Cipher]

TAIGANG.

if a couple you know are always bantering and niggling at each other' date=' you can describe them as being "taigang".

Nimen dou taigang !

Bie taigang. - It is a funny way to say "dont argue".

meaning has something to do with lifting steel.[/quote']

TaiGang = 抬杠. Not lifting steel, but lifting thick stick...

[skylee]

taigang = 抬槓 (traditional chinese)

[Lu]

(...)cui niu I think should be chui niu, to brag or boast.

And if you blow cows really hard they'll fly, that's why you can say '我看见满天飞牛' 'I see cows flying everywhere' if someone's boasting.

[xoyopai]

If you want to swear you can always say ni3niang2de' date='ni you, niang from guniang girl, de is the particle used for the adjectives. You can figure out the meaning for yourselves...[/quote']

"ni3niang2de", this is very dirty word. You should not use it when you talk to Chinese or anyone else. It's very rude.