So, how DO you say so-so in Mandarin, anyway?

[vellocet]

I still don't have an answer after all these years.  一般般?  That's more like one half than the English meaning of so-so.  And when do you add the second 般 and when do you leave it off? 

 

What else is there?  I know there must be some Chinese saying because I've heard "Just-a sew sew" from Chinese people millions of times. 

 

Sample conversation:

A: How was that new Sichuan restuarant you went to last night?

 

B: So-so. 

 

A: What did you think about the new teacher?

 

B: So-so.

 

Anyone who says mamahuhu gets a lantern hammer to the head.

[anonymoose]

一般般?  That's more like one half than the English meaning of so-so.

 

What do you mean by that? I think 一般般 fits the context you mentioned.

[Tiana]

一般般?  That's more like one half

 

One half should be more like this: 一半 (Pay attention to the difference in the tone).

 

And when do you add the second 般 and when do you leave it off? 

 

一般般 is a little more casual than 一般 and tends to be used more in conversation.

[Kamille]

一般般 seems a good choice, yeah. Reduplication in Chinese is there mostly to soften the tone. If you say 一般 it's the same, except 一般般 sounds softer. 

 

Now I don't know about the situation in China but in Taiwan they say so-so. 

A: 你覺得昨晚的四川餐廳如何?
B: So-so。

 

Outside of school I've never heard 馬馬虎虎, you're totally right. Now "so-so" is just a point on the scale of appreciation. If you say 還行, 差不多, 不怎麼樣 and stuff like that, the message will get through all the same: it's not exactly bad but it's not good either.

[889]

The hotel reviews posted on ctrip and elong are a good source of brief, colloquial ways of saying good, bad and indifferrent.

[Lu]

还行 would also be a good candidate I think. How are things? 还行.

 

In Dutch you can say 'zo-zo', which means approximately the same as 'so so' but is in fact rarely used. I once had a language partner whom someone must have told that 'zo-zo' was the equivalent of 'so so', because she used it a lot. More than I heard in the rest of my life combined, I think.

[Guest realmayo]

While agreeing with the above suggestions I've often wondered how  凑合 is used. According to the dictionary:

 

 

 

What do you think of this novel? -- Not too bad.

这本小说怎么样 -- 还凑合。

 

 

But I don't know how natural/normal this sounds.

[vellocet]

So, yiban really does mean so-so?  Ok, I just never hear it used, really.  I'm super-suspicious of "dictionary Chinese", words taught to foreigners that are never actually used by Chinese people. 

 

I studied 凑合 for a while and then abandoned it as it appeared to be another example of dictionary Chinese.  It's also an uncommon pronounciation, I don't think any other word uses cou.  I have just wasted so much time memorizing words only to get blank looks when I finally use them. 

[rezaf]

Words with cou meaning gather are not that uncommon but this is the first time I see it used as "not bad". From now on I am going to use Coucou instead of yiban. 

[imron]

then abandoned it as it appeared to be another example of dictionary Chinese

It's very common in Hebei and surrounds (including Beijing) and not dictionary Chinese at all - if anything it's more like spoken slang.

 

@renzhe I've never heard 凑凑 for not bad.  It's always 凑合, although sometimes the 'he' is pronounced 'huo'

[rezaf]

How about 凑凑合合?

[Kamille]

Or 凑合凑合 ? Or 凑里凑合 ? But if it's slang there is a high possibility that it comes from the regional dialect and if you want to know how to redupicate it, maybe you should see how the regional dialect reduplicates it. There even is a possibility that you just can't reduplicate it.

 

Judging by the sound of it I'd say 凑合凑合 is probably the right one. But it's merely an assumption that I'm doing here.

[imron]

Judging by the sound of it I'd say 凑合凑合 is probably the right one

I would say this also, not because it sounds right, but because 凑凑合合 sounds definitely wrong and 凑合凑合 slightly less so.

 

I don't recall ever hearing it duplicated.  You often hear it paired with 还, e.g. 还凑合

[rezaf]

Well there are some search results like these:

[xyz123abc]

就那么回事

 

I would love to know the origin of this phrase.

[Kamille]

For what it's worth, here is what happens when you type both in google.

 

凑合凑合: 245 000 results

凑凑合合: 43 700 results

 

I suppose both are in use, so.

[rezaf]

I like this word and it seems to have interesting meanings but I live in Shanghai and don't hang out with anyone from the North so I am not sure if I can use it here. Certainly haven't heard any of my Shanghainese, Zhejiangnese, Jiangsunese(?), Malaysian,... friends use it even once.

[Kamille]

Same here. I actually learnt the word yesterday.

I just have a feeling that V+V combinations often seem to be reduplicated in an ABAB pattern. Now 凑 and 合 both being verbs...

[vellocet]

I checked with my teacher and she said 还凑合is a northern construction not used in southern China. 《我们南方极少数会说》  Chalk another one up to "Beijing Chinese is best Chinese". 

[skylee]

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