Same thing, different names

[xiaocai]

Corn - 玉米。棒子。玉蜀黍(ha )。粟米。

And also 苞谷.

[heifeng]

Bump. Must keep this thread going...b/c now we can eat corn no matter where we go! What other fun words are out there, let's see....

And we can also get some toilet paper....to TP a house or tree...(ohh to be a teenager again)*

卫生纸

手纸

or to potentially clean out earwax

耳垢

耳屎

but alas what can be done about cavities or caries (haha see that same thing different name English style)

虫牙

龋齿

...to be continued

____

*Sorry sometimes the urge to be random comes upon me. But hopefully it's helpful to our non-native English speakers to learn these strange expressions too~ no language wars on this forum, just oversharing B)

玉蜀黍 yù​shǔ​shǔ​ is great by the way. I'm gonna just keep on saying it over and over for corn until someone knows what I am talking about. Yeah!

[Shelley]

Hi ya, i agree this is a fun topic, but just on a more serious note, as Peanut allergy suffer how can I ensure i get my message across and not have people think i have a potatoe allergy :rolleyes: Shelley

[skylee]

as Peanut allergy suffer how can I ensure i get my message across and not have people think i have a potatoe allergy

Use 花生. There is no ambiguity/misunderstanding of this term.

cavities/caries - 蟲牙。齲齒。蛀牙。壞牙。爛牙。

[Shelley]

Thanks Skylee, I am going to make a card (like a business card) with it on in as many languages as i need. Thank you again Shelley

[skylee]

landslide - 山體滑坡。山泥傾瀉。滑坡。塌方。(Is 塌方 the same thing?)

internet - 互聯網。萬維網。英特網。網絡。網。(there might be some technical differences among these names which I don't understand)

(I think 萬維網 is a brilliant name for www.)

[nc911a1]

大哥大 is seldom used nowadays. I think，usually it means early mobile phone which looks like an adobe or a block.

And 奶油 should be cream.

阿妈，阿公 something like that only are used by people who live in south and sea side cities of china. eg, for example, Fujian province and Taiwan (they have the same culture ).

[skylee]

And 奶油 should be cream.

Ah you are so sure. What do you call butter in Chinese? I think in some places 奶油 means butter.

[imron]

黄油. I would also have said 奶油 was cream, so I guess it's another mainland variation.

[heifeng]

I say 黄油 for butter, but occasionally I've encountered that western dairy products are lumped into the general 奶油 category b/c not everyone in China is really familiar with the multitude of dairy products...or b/c they are just called different things in different places. (like the 20 ways to say cheese)

Mercury, Hg, 汞， 水银

[chinchillus]

To call butter 奶油 is ok. But in order to distinguish it from cream, we call butter 黄油.

Though the different names refer to the same thing, they are used in different cases. For example, 龋齿 is mainly used in the written language and in the professional case. For daily use, we say 蛀牙 or 虫牙. In Putonghua, bus, 公交车 is used more often than 巴士 which is more used in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Mercury, 水银 is more used in daily life and 汞 is more used in chemical case. As its other meanings in English, it may also refer to the God 墨丘里 or the planet 水星.

[skylee]

Could someone from Taiwan (or who has studied in Taiwan) shed some light on the "奶油 means butter" discussion?

In HK, butter is 牛油.

[Ah-Bin]

Anyways now we have 鮮奶油 / 生奶油 / 忌廉 for cream.

The last one is great. If yu read it in Cantonese you get something that sounds like "cream", just like reading 淇淋 in Hokkien. I'm guessing 淇淋 is a borrowing through Hokkien, in Cantonese it wouldn't approximate "cream" very well, and I was a long time studying Mandarin before I realised what 淇淋actually meant.

[xiaocai]

据说有人死了。

So do you know other not so formal ways to say 死?

Was watching a comedy and heard 嗝儿屁了 and 挂了.

[skylee]

死了。掛了。去了。歸西了。升天了。翹辮子。兩腿一伸。。。。

[Glenn]

去世了。 That's all I've got.

[Peter2010]

So do you know other not so formal ways to say 死?

崩、薨、殁、没(mo4)、卒、毙、丧、逝、亡、殇、夭、殂、故、终、呜呼、千古、作古、不讳

辞世、谢世、去世、逝世、过世、下世

撒手、长辞、永别、永辞、老了、断气、归西、升天、长眠、圆寂、涅磐、往生、坐化、登仙、羽化、亡故、故去、安息、轻生、不起、大故、牺牲、殉职、捐躯、蹬腿、数尽、完蛋、见背、走了

翘辫子、百年后、进棺材、见阎王、

吹灯拔蜡、撒手人寰、与世长辞、见马克思

[daofeishi]

Some that spring to mind;

prostate: 前列腺，摄护腺

neck: 脖子，颈

moose: 麋鹿，驼鹿

cheese: 奶酪，干酪，芝士

[imron]

地瓜 and 红薯

[skylee]

cheese - 奶酪，乾酪，芝士 ，起司，起士

sweet potato - 地瓜。紅薯。番薯。