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Chinese Expletives (reduplicated adjectives)


ax

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I notice there are a fix pair of some adjectives in Chinese....

I don't know what is grammatical term for them, so I just calli it expletives...

here are the sample, I've heard....don't know if you guys heard of others...

黑嗎嗎 [hei ma ma]

慘西西 [can xi xi]

兇巴巴 [xiong ba ba]

鬧哄哄 [men hong hong]

喘噓噓 [chuan xu xu]

熱騰騰 [re teng teng]

冷颼颼 [leng sou sou]

髒稀稀 [zang xi xi]

冷冰冰 [leng bing bing]

熱呼呼 [re fu fu]

急忙忙 [ji mang mang]

慢吞吞 [man tun tun]

紅通通 [hong tong tong]

圓滾滾 [yuan gun gun]

神秘祕 [shen mi mi]

大辣辣 [da la la]

濕答答 [shi da da]

胖嘟嘟 [pang du du]

黏撘撘 [nian ta ta]

綠油油 [lv you you]

死光光 [si guang guang]

蹦跳跳 [peng tiao tiao]

please add on if you learn new ones....

ax

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here's more, someone need to help me add the pinyin :)

by the way, it's called 疊字 [die zi] . Got it from a friend...

English equivalent of this should be like: helter skelter, rolly polly, lovey dovey, that kind.... forget what's it called in english too...

坦蕩蕩 [tan3 dang4 dang4] -> on the up and up

長戚戚 [chang2 qi1 qi1] -> a la la la la long?

笑哈哈 [xiao4 ha1 ha1] -> laugh ha ha

笑嘻嘻 [xiao4 xi1 xi1] -> laugh hi hi

肥孜孜 [fei2 zi1 zi1] -> rolly polly

瘦巴巴 [shou4 ba1 ba1] -> skinny winny?

活跳跳 [huo tiao4 tiao4] ->alive and kicking

色咪咪 [se4 mi4 mi4] -> leche beche?

酸溜溜 [suan1 liu1 liu1] -> sour chour?

直挺挺 [zhi2 ting3 ting3] -> straight and stiff (sexy huh ) :D

喘呼呼 [chuan3 hu1 hu1] -> breathless

氣呼呼 [qi4 hu1 hu1] -> anger banger :)

毛茸茸 [mao2 rong2 rong2] -> fluffy

陰森森 [yin2 sen1 sen1] -> gloomy, ominous

哇哈哈 [wa1 ha1 ha1] -> onomatopoeia of laughter

轟隆隆 [hong long long] -> onomatopoeia of thundering sound

頂呱呱 [ding3 gua1 gua1] -> top notch

香噴噴 [xiang1 pen1 pen1] 台語 : [pang gong gong] -> smell very good

鬧轟轟 [nao1 hong1 hong1] -> argy bargy

ax

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哇哈哈

Does that have a meaning beside being the name of a brand of bottled water produced in Shanghai?

The only one I can think of is 干巴巴的 - dry, crumbly? Not sure (could be in your list anyway, I might have missed it.)

Roddy

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ah, yes. reduplication.

we have ABB in cantonese too...

like when something is CHEAP BOOM BOOM (poor quality)....

or someone is FEI TAN TAN a little chubby...

also, repduplication often appears in onomatopeic expressions...

... ok, i'll be quiet now. :wall

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黑嗎嗎

I thought that's Cantonese?

蹦跳跳

蹦蹦跳跳 or 蹦蹦跳?

哇哈哈

muahaha

it is also a brandname

we have ABB in cantonese too...

like when something is CHEAP BOOM BOOM (poor quality)....

or someone is FEI TAN TAN a little chubby...

what's cheap boom boom?

it's Fei Ton Ton :)

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坦蕩蕩 [tan3 dang4 dang4] -> on the up and up

長戚戚 [chang2 qi1 qi1] -> a la la la la long?

坦蕩蕩 is an adjective to describe 君子

長戚戚 is an adjective to describe 小人

Join them all together, you have "君子坦蕩蕩, 小人長戚戚", a saying from the Analects.

(sorry if it sounds boring.)

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