bendan

joined 2 years ago
[–] bendan@hexbear.net 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Posting neat Chinese phrases whenever I feel like #36

{马|mǎ}{上|shàng}

Literally: “on horseback”

Figuratively: “right away; soon”

@ProletarianDictator@hexbear.net

[–] bendan@hexbear.net 3 points 1 year ago

you could also just use the player hotkeys to cycle through subtitles and secondary subs

felt lazy, might post details later

[–] bendan@hexbear.net 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah I should have explained it a little more in depth, haha. It’s hard to reduce these words to simple translations. All parts are weird enough on their own.

{如|rú} means “follow” more in the sense of “follow orders”, go along, comply, accord, be like, as if, etc. {果|guǒ} means fruit in a very broad sense as the “effect” of a tree or seed, think like “bear fruit”, “fruitless”, “the fruits of one’s labor”, etc. So in combination they mean, what happens if the results of a situation are according to some description.

The other variant I think is a bit simpler. {要|yào} means “ask for”, “demand”, “request”, “want”, “need”, “must”, sort of the inverse of the above {如|rú} here. So a hypothetical demands that a situation {是|shì} be a certain way. It places a restriction on the possible outcomes.

Sorry if this is nonsense, I might post other compounds with {果|guǒ} and delve deeper ... whenever I feel like™ 😎

[–] bendan@hexbear.net 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Posting neat Chinese phrases whenever I feel like #35

{如|rú}{果|guǒ} / {要|yào}{是|shì}

Literally: “follow fruit / need be”

Figuratively: “if”

@ProletarianDictator@hexbear.net

[–] bendan@hexbear.net 4 points 1 year ago

Don’t thank me, thank our gigachad devs

[–] bendan@hexbear.net 9 points 1 year ago

I have a confession to make. I am actually {~~based~~|~~cringe~~} {cringe|based}.

[–] bendan@hexbear.net 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Posting neat Chinese phrases whenever I feel like #33

{忐|tǎn}{忑|tè}

Remember {上|shàng} and {下|xià} (up and down)? If your {心|xīn} (heart) was going up and down, how would you feel? Perhaps perturbed, fidgety, upset, on edge, uneasy, nervous?

This is a 2-syllable word where neither {忐|tǎn} nor {忑|tè} make sense on their own, they are strictly parts of this word. I’m also 99% sure that the characters were invented specifically for this word.

@ProletarianDictator@hexbear.net

[–] bendan@hexbear.net 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Posting neat Chinese phrases whenever I feel like #32

脑袋

(nǎo dài)

Literally: “brain bag”

Figuratively: “head” (informal)

@ProletarianDictator@hexbear.net

[–] bendan@hexbear.net 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Posting neat Chinese phrases whenever I feel like #31

庸人自扰

(yōng rén zì rǎo)

Literally: “mediocre person self disturb”

Figuratively: “worry about nothing / create trouble for oneself”

@ProletarianDictator@hexbear.net

[–] bendan@hexbear.net 4 points 1 year ago

Chuck in shock, choked on chunky junk

[–] bendan@hexbear.net 9 points 1 year ago

Posting neat Chinese phrases whenever I feel like #30

上 + 下

(shàng + xià)

Iconic characters: one “arrow” up and one down! And if you feel some sense of déjà vu from last time, that’s because we’re doing more time analogies. If you had to choose between “up” and “down” to mean past or present, which would you pick? In any case, Chinese settled on ...

spoilerup = past, and down = future. The way I’ve had it explained to me is that in writing, earlier events are on the top of the page and later events at the bottom, but I don’t trust this since it assumes widespread literacy historically. If you know a better explanation please advise!

 

bonus! tongue twister下个星期见
(xià gè xīng qī jiàn)
[ɕja⁵¹ kɰɤ⁵¹ ɕɪŋ⁵⁵ tɕʰi⁵⁵ tɕjɛn⁵¹]
“see you next week” (down [one] star period see)

 
@ProletarianDictator@hexbear.net

83
Yes (hexbear.net)
 
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