Its original meaning is “mouth”, which can also be called “ 嘴” or “ 嘴巴” (zuǐ or zuǐ ba). You'll receive your guide by email in the next few minutes. So here “ 让…下不来台” means “make someone embarrassed”.
The translation is “the boss asks Xiao Wang a question in public, but he doesn’t know how to answer it, which makes him embarrassed”). But every time Ah Xing find the way to get rid of the embarrassment to keep the relationship with Xixi.”) In that case, “ 给…台阶下” means “help someone get rid of the embarrassment”.
dàn měi cì dōu shì ā xīng gěi xī xī tái jiē xià. We may say “ 我们现在要下台阶了” (wǒ men xiàn zài yào xià tái jiē le, let’s step down the hill). For example, many hills in China have thousands of stairs, and now we are at the top of a hill. Its original meaning is “step down/go downstairs”. When he comes back, I will argue with him!) In that case, “ 算账” means “argue”, since here the wife is mad with his husband. děng tā huí lái, wǒ yào zhǎo tā suàn zhàng!). I will tell you how much you need to pay later.)īut you may often hear Chinese people say that word in another situation, for example, “ 他都没跟我说,就把我的衣服扔了。等他回来,我要找他算账!” (tā dōu méi gēn wǒ shuō, jiù bǎ wǒ de yī fu rēng le. Its original meaning is “calculate the bill/budget”. (The article is not long but the actual value is huge The method is widely used.) 3. (The actual value of the master’s degree in this university is quite low.) Another example can be “ 这篇文章不长,但含金量很高,运用广泛” (zhè piān wén zhāng bú zháng, dàn hán jīn liàng hěn gāo, yùn yòng guǎng fàn). (The gold content of this necklace is 80%.)īut now we can hear lots of Chinese people say that word in a completely different context, which means the actual value of something.
Its original meaning is the percentage of gold in a gold product. I have lots of room to improve my English. The translation is this university is awful. When you want to get a cup of water, you can say “ 我去倒杯水” (wǒ qù dào bēi shuǐ).Įxcept for its original meaning, nowadays “水” can also be used to describe the functions of something or the abilities of someone is terrible. When you want to buy a bottle of water, you can say “ 我去买瓶水” (wǒ qù mǎi píng shuǐ). In groceries, you can find “ 矿泉水” (kuàng quán shuǐ, spring water).
You might often hear Chinese people say “ 开水” (kāi shuǐ) which is boiled water. When using this kind of words, be careful with each particular context and get a feeling of what meaning has been applied. Chinese people use them quite often in their daily life. Here we summarised 8 common Chinese words with multiple meanings. Do you see it? A word with multiple meanings can be incredibly useful!Ī word with multiple meanings is called “ 一词多义” (yī cí duō yì). Just like some words in English, for example, when is your “date” of birth? My favourite fruit is “date”. Have you found a Chinese word could have different meanings for different contexts? “ 这个大学很水,硕士学位含金量很低。” Do you know what meanings of “ 水” and “ 含金量” in this sentence? Do they simply just refer to water and gold content?