Jump to content
Chinese-Forums
  • Sign Up

谚语 Popular Chinese sayings with English translation!


Recommended Posts

Posted

My favorites:

画蛇添足 Drawing feet on a snake: to ruin a successful effort by going to far. Not knowing when to stop.

班门弄斧 To show off your skill with an axe in front of a famous axe-weilder's front door: to show off in front of experts (very useful when a native Mandarin speaker compliments you on your Chinese)

拔苗助长 To try to make the plants grow faster by pulling on them: to ruin something by acting when you should just leave it alone. Doing the wrong thing at the wrong time. Overeagerness.

乱七八糟 Chaotic, messed up, disorganized

对牛弹琴 Playing a violin to a cow: wasting your time by doing something good for someone who can't appreciate it. I often use it self-deprecatingly for some part of Chinese culture or entertainment I don't enjoy much, to clarify the problem is MY taste, not the entertainment. Roughly equivalent to Pearls before swine.

  • 8 months later...
Posted

Has anyone ever heard of some possibly old Chinese sayings:

Of pure heart of one mind.

To have and to hold is a beautiful thing.

Join the conversation

You can post now and select your username and password later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Click here to reply. Select text to quote.

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...