By continuing you agree to eChinacities's Privacy Policy .
Sign up with Google
Sign up with Facebook
Q: Funny misunderstandings because you used the wrong tones for a word?
Anyone have any funny ones?
I commonly mess up these two:
答辩 dábiàn defend a thesis
大便 dàbiàn defecate
:D
12 years 17 weeks ago in Teaching & Learning - China
shi with the first tone and shi with the second tone. One of them means ten and the other means damp, humid or wet.
mattaya:
Another one that always gets me is gui third tone and gui forth tone.....the first means devil; ghost the other means expensive or costly.
mattaya:
I used ti second tone once because I needed help lifting something, but got misunderstood with ti first tone which meant kick. lol
I once had all the ladies in the office staring at me when I tried to ask for something to write with, as I accidentally said, "Do you have a vagina (bi1)?" But not a particularly pleasant word for vagina.
Also, once I asked for a strawberry flavoured drink, and the lady at the counter laughed her ass off because it sounded like I wanted f*ckberry.
La means spicey, but can also mean "rotten"
So I've asked for food before and stressed that I do not want it to be rotten!
skyooo:
You mean làn (烂) for "rotten" instead of là (辣) for spicy? Technically that's not the wrong tones (both 4th), that's a whole different syllable. Interesting because it's not just the final "n" that's different; those two words have different vowel sound as well. I'm guessing you pronounced "là" like Americans say "dance" which sounds more like the lighter vowel in "làn" than the darker "là", so whoever was listening mentally attached that extra "n" and thought you said "rotten". Cool!
nevermind:
Yup, you're right
Sadly, after I said I didn't want rotten food I was refused service.
I guess there could be some amusing ones. Maybe getting the tone of "ma" wrong you could go from saying "Can I ride your horse" to "Can I ride your mother".
Also "shou yin ji" could be interesting. Usually, it will mean radio but a small change of tones in the shou yin part could result in you asking for a "hand job machine".
Im just as bad Pogger34
Heres a word of advice practice under your breath before saying something relating to Grass and Horses in the same sentence
No good can come of it believe me
and that is how I got the black eye
it happens with me all the time , once i said to my colleagues i won't be here tomorrow because i will be busy doing my thesis defense and then they laughed , well i understood the reason and i replay i will have my thesis Xiǎobiàn and i made them laughted again .
Saying that you are winning and that you have an erection are closely related.
-win/stiff
"Wo ying le" I won/I am stiff.
My Charlie Sheen impression in Chinese (I said I was winning like 100 times win I learned how to say it) was actually rather vulger.
Saying that you are winning and that you have an erection are closely related.
-win/stiff
"Wo ying le" I won/I am stiff.
My Charlie Sheen impression in Chinese (I said I was winning like 100 times win I learned how to say it) was actually rather vulger.
I found out some of the many iterations of "shi" by mistake. Finally discovered that "Zhe shi shi shi" when used with the proper tones means, "This is wet sh*t". Now I'm so proud of myself.
Always a problem for me to get sugar instead of soup....
The woman at my local takeaway seems to enjoy toying with me. They make great fried rice and awesome fried noodles. Regardless of how well I pronounce the words, I ALWAYS get the other one. She seems to understand everything else that I say to her so I think she is having a laugh. My wife has been with me when I have ordered sometimes and thinks I have pronounced 'fen' correctly.....and still EVERY TIME I get the opposite.
I plan to use reverse psychology and ask for fried rice when I want fried noodles.
Also, I have been corrected for my pronunciation of niubi so that it means awesome and not the nether regions of a cow and once as a newbie I asked for a can of shabi. That was awkward. My friend told me that I am a shabi already and didn't need a top up
