Heard word sounding like "nick," what does translate to?

[sc1010]

Hello,

Trying to translate a word that sounds like English name "Nick" or "neigh". Does it mean no/don't/negative (was told it may but I do not believe).

Thanks

[renzhe]

Perhaps "nei ge" ?

"no", "don't" and "didn't" are "bu", "bie" and "mei you", respectively.

Which dialect are you talking about?

[889]

宁可 ningke?

[Shi Tong]

Are you hearing this as one or two syllables??

I would assume 2, and "neigh"'s closest translation in my mind is "nei4ge" (那个 nèi​gè "that one", or "that") or (那个 nà​ge "that one", or "that").

If you're hearing this as one syllable as literally like "Nick", then I wouldn't know.

[xiaocai]

Standard mandarin chinese has less than 400 unique syllables if you ignore the tones. The guessing game will be endless unless more details can be given.

[sc1010]

Thanks for the help. Word was one syllable. Speaker speaks native Mandarin and say this word means no. We only speak Spanish until this word comes out. Appears speaker has been calling me wrong name in private situations. <_<

[Hofmann]

Even if that is a native Mandarin speaker, they might not have given you a Mandarin syllable.

[Shi Tong]

Put it this way- no Mandarin word ends in either a "ck" sound (like Nick) nor would they have a "g" in the middle like "neigh". The only close thing I can think of for "neigh" as a single syllable (like you would find in Mandarin) is a sound like - 奶 nǎi​- because in English you might hear that and add a "gh" at the end like "the end is nigh", or alternatively the sound 内 nèi.

However, I've not seen any of these sounds referring to "negative" or "no"

The only negative thing I can find related to either of these one syllable sounds is 褦 nài​ which is quite hilarious because it means: ignorant , but apparently also means sun hat.

Hahaha ;)

[phonetics]

I guess it would be 宁可 ning2ke3, which means would rather, kind of negate the meaning. And it sounds like Nick, because the /ik/ in /nik/ sounds like ink

[stonelee]

那个 na4ge4

it is always pronunce nei4ge4 ~~

-------------

mean negative？

宁可 ning2ke3

[Dani]

I think it's 那个, cause it's very often used, and insted of "na ge", northerners pronounce it as "nei ge"... and also zhe ge = zhei ge (which is ci ge, in some dialects)

[blackmeow]

right......i have learned, from now on, i will try to call all Nicks ’那个‘.