"Picky", what are the different way to say ?

[crouchingdragon]

I happen to watch Da Shan the other day on his CCTV 9 language program, and he was talking about the Mandarin word for "picky."

I ran to get a pen to no avail. I only briefly saw three Chinese characters on my tv screen and heard Da Shan say that it has an "r" sound at the end. I am fairly sure the word he was covering was not Tiaotide.

I have this impression that the first character could in fact be Tiao, the second character I am not sure of but believe that the word ended with a pinyin "n" sound and the third character stood for the "r" sound replaces the "n" -if that makes any sense. Maybe like Dazhalan going to Dazhalar in Beijing hua ?

If anybody can help poor confused me, I would be most grateful.

Thank you,

mark

[semantic nuance]

Hi crouchingdragon,

Is it '挑三揀四(兒)的' (tiao1 san1 jian3 si4er de)? 挑三揀四(兒)的 can mean 挑剔的 for picky. I guess the er sound you heard might be like some words with 兒, i.e. flower 花兒. That's the closest thing I can come up with now.

Hope it helps!

[skylee]

嘴尖? 嘴刁? ???

[crouchingdragon]

Thank you for your suggestions.

Does Jiao jia(n)3 r or er ending make a bit of sense as a possible expression for "Picky" ?

Thanks again !

[semantic nuance]

Jiao jia(n) r???...hmmm, not that I know of....

[elina]

Maybe 较真儿 jiao4 zhenr ???

[crouchingdragon]

较真儿 jiao4 zhenr Yes That's it ! That's what I was looking for !!!

Thank you so much !

[HashiriKata]

较真儿 jiao4 zhenr Yes That's it ! That's what I was looking for !!!

But this does not mean "picky", does it ??? It means "serious", something close to "认真".

(or, are we talking about different things?)

[semantic nuance]

What does 較真兒 mean? I've never heard of that? Perhaps it's only used in mainland china? Can anyone explain that?

[HashiriKata]

What does 較真兒 mean?

You didn't see my post above? 較真兒 means "serious/ earnest".

[Quest]

What does 較真兒 mean? I've never heard of that? Perhaps it's only used in mainland china? Can anyone explain that?

I think that's Beijing slang or something...

[hakkaboy]

Well, Dashan may be fluent in Chinese, but he is not an authority on Chinese-English translation - that would require a subtle understanding of the English language for a start. Wenlin gives the word as jiao4zhen1 or jiao4zhen1r, ie, with a 1st tone on the 2nd syllable. It can be written: 较/叫真/针 The meaning is given as ①be serious; take seriously; take to heart ②〈slang〉 argue; wrangle. It is possible that telling someone not to argue or wrangle is approximately equal to telling him not to be picky, but they are not exactly the same thing. Wenlin also adds in brackets. What does that mean? Part of the Beijing topolect?

[elina]

I think that's Beijing slang or something...

Maybe. In Beijing most of the people know what “较真儿” means, but I do not know if it is used outside Beijing in China mainland.

But this does not mean "picky"' date=' does it ??? It means "serious", something close to "认真".

(or, are we talking about different things?)[/quote']

I think 较真儿 may be not equal with 认真. 认真 is positive, but 较真儿 is negative, means TOO serious, that can be equal with 挑剔的 / picky. Sometimes, 真理与谬误只差半步 / there's only half step from truth to falsehood. So I think 中庸之道 / golden mean is reasonable sometimes.

[amego]

Normally we say 嫌东嫌西 xian2 dong1 xian2 xi1

"她每次买东西都嫌东嫌西，真是麻烦。" "She everytime buys things pick on this and that, its really troublesome."

"Its really a headache that she is so picky on every shopping trip."

Also more colloquial we have 这个不要那个也不要 zhe4 ge4 bu2 yao4 na4 ge4 ye3 bu2 yao4 "don't want this and don't want that" can also mean fickle-minded.

"你这个不要那个也不要，那你到底要什么?" " "You this don't want, that don't want, what on earth you want?"

"You can't seem to be deciding on anything, what do you want actually?"

Cheers