Help understanding the phrase 海你個頭拉

[Ness]

I was watching a Chinese drama and the subtitles revealed this phrase in the context of one of the conversations:

海你個頭拉

It means something like "ocean in your head" which I suppose the translation to English would be the equivalent of the phrase "whatever". At least that is what the subtitles implied. I'm assuming this is only used when people want to purposely sound condescending? I'm guessing it's not the same "whatever" as in responding to a question of choice such "Oh I don't mind, choose whatever..."

[David Wong]

Does the context of the conversation have anything to do with the sea or ocean? The format of the dismissive response is usually <x>你个头啦。 I think it means something like: "You're suggesting <X>? Unh-uh! I don't think so..."

[Ness]

No. It was just two people talking and one person getting fed up with what the other one was talking about. So they pulled that line.

[anonymoose]

Something like, "the sea, my ass!".

[skylee]

Over here, we would add 死人 before 頭 for emphasis.

[creamyhorror]

海你個頭拉

In Mandarin the equivalent is "X你的头啦" and the meaning is "X, my ass!", as anonymoose noted. The phrase you posted appears to be Cantonese or another dialect.

In fact here in Singapore we actually use this in Singlish: "X your head lah, your eyes got problem is it?" (X你的头啦，你眼睛有问题啊？)

[anonymoose]

In Mandarin the equivalent is "X你的头啦"

Are you sure? I've only ever heard X你个头 in mandarin (albeit from shanghainese speakers).

[creamyhorror]

Are you sure? I've only ever heard X你个头 in mandarin (albeit from shanghainese speakers).

Really? Interesting, since 的 is the standard possessive particle in Mandarin. 个 seems used in dialects.

We say X你的头 here in Singapore, at least. Could be dialectal influence.

[anonymoose]

I don't think this phrase can be deconstructed grammatically, but anyway, this is just my limited personal experience. Maybe speakers from other areas could chip in.

[creamyhorror]

Some examples from around the net:

你们不需要喝些红酒助兴吗？” “助你的头啦。那是我收藏地珍品，我自己都舍不得打开呢。”

-- 那你是太祖了。。

-- 祖你的头啦。。。我连组装都不会。。。

阿公在忙別的事，沒好氣地回道：「玩你的頭啦。」

——要不这样我看在你的份上…我帮你先放进去

　　——讨厌！放你的头啦！快点去啦！

That said, I see 你个头啦 has even more hits on google so it's quite likely that 个 is the more common variation. So I guess I could be wrong in saying that 的 was the Mandarin version.

[danny1997]

So I guess I could be wrong in saying that 的 was the Mandarin version.

I confirm that in Taiwan we say X 你个头(啦)，not 你的头.

Regarding 海你个头: 海 = "high" under some contexts (it's chinglish, means "Let's get fun").

For example:

A : 待会儿我们去舞厅 或卡拉OK high 一下吧!

B: 海 (hign) 你个头啦。我今晚累死了。

[OneEye]

As a side note, whenever I hear "high" used like that in Taiwan, it's always with a first tone, like many one-syllable English words borrowed into Chinese here. Cheese is a common exception because it becomes two syllables (usually qìsi), which I've seen written 起司、起士、芝士 etc.

[skylee]

Take a look at the same thing, different names thread.

[Kobo-Daishi]

It, 個頭, is also used on Taiwan.

Here are 3 stills from the classic Taiwanese romantic comedy series, It Started With A Kiss.

Great series.

Kobo.

[萌就一個字一控一輩子]

not only "個頭", you can also use "個鬼","個屁"(rude),"個球","個屄"(really rude)...and alots of other thing, but they all means teh same...

and the other phase to use is "你妹"... or "你媽","你爸",你哥",你大爺","你阿祖"(more in Ming-nan)...etc, this is moe recent and much people are using them now... but since it attach the "family" into it, it become much more rude in other people's ear.

[aurora-kid]

I think recently, people use "你妹"and”尼玛“ much more frequently than ”你妈、你爸、 你xx“