"What the hell" in Beijinghua

[trevelyan]

Cool little saying from Beijing to express disbelief:

那儿跟哪儿

nar3 gen1 nar3

[HSC]

If it's a third tone "na" shouldn't it be 哪 instead of 那？

[BeijingSlacker]

If it's a third tone "na" shouldn't it be 哪 instead of 那？

Right. It's usually "哪儿跟哪啊”or "这哪儿跟哪啊”. However, I don't think it's exactly the same as "what the hell"

I don't think there is a Chinese phrase (or at least in Beijinghua) that covers the same set of meanings and tone of voice as " What the hell"。"哪儿跟哪啊”could be the closest you can get.

[Tang]

Not exactly I suppose. If we are talking about the usage as in sentences like "What the hell did you hear?" I think there are some phrases that can express the same meaning as "what the hell" . For example "究竟(是)"," 到底(是)", Who the hell are you? = 你 究竟/到底 是谁啊?

Am I right?

[dwood92688]

Ni tamade tingdao le shenme ?

"What the hell!" "Tamade!"

[hakkaboy]

Right. It's usually "哪儿跟哪啊”or "这哪儿跟哪啊”. However, I don't think it's exactly the same as "what the hell"

I don't think there is a Chinese phrase (or at least in Beijinghua) that covers the same set of meanings and tone of voice as " What the hell"。"哪儿跟哪啊”could be the closest you can get.

What exactly doees 哪儿跟哪啊 mean then if it is not quite "what the hell"?

[dwood92688]

If the key word is "disbelief", then when you say "what the hell" you are really chiding that one was totally "mixed up". Traditional Chinese idiom is 牛头不对马嘴 (niútóu búduì mǎzuǐ)。 This could be the origin where 哪儿跟哪啊 is from. Also, they use 对不上号 (duìbúshàng hào) quite offen there. An unprogressing mentality from the days when everthing needs to be 对(上)号 before you can get things done.

This reminded me of an English (American?) word: snafu.

[xiaomawang]

I would say '什么鬼东西'.

[timkunming]

In Kunming, we have a similar phrase to this. Usually, if people want to say "what the hell?" or "what the hell are you doing?" it should be "Ni Zhe Na Ya?!" or just "Zhe Na Ya" or "Na Ya YiSi?!"

I love regional dialects. In Kunming city alone we have Kunminghua, as well as Guanduhua which is absolutely hilarious. Instead of "Wu Jiao" for money, they say "Oh Joh"