Honey? Sweetie? Lambchop? Pookie?!

Eg. "老公 is going to love that! I can't wait to see his reaction when he opens the envelope!" or "Well, who told him to order that without checking with 老婆 first? Too bad..." It's often used in the third person, even when we are referring to ourselves. Just another linguistic kink to enjoy...

Hello, is there a Mandarin equivalent of the very endearing Cantonese endearments: 老公 (husband; literally, "old man") and 老婆 (wife; literally, "old lady")? One of my Singaporean girl-friends, who is an Oxford-educated lawyer, refers to her English husband as "lo-gong", and to herself as his long-suffering (but very well-loved) "lo-porr". This sounds perfectly natural and sweet in Cantonese.

小傻瓜 (xiǎo shǎguā) little fool

That's got me written all over it. :-) Thanks, lujiaojie!

Lujiaojie,

thanks! Thats what we wanted. Thanks for sharing.

Well Stanley, how's that eye healing up?

宝宝 (bǎobao) baby, darling

猪猪 (zhū zhū) piggy

大坏蛋 (dà huàidàn) big bad egg

小笨蛋 (xiǎo bèndàn) little bad egg

小傻瓜 (xiǎo shǎguā) little fool

小心肝 (xiǎo xīngān) little darling

臭小子 (chòuxiǎozi) stinky boy

Some of the terms of endearment in Chinese sound like insults, but when we use them in this way they don't sound bad!

Great idea, Frank! So I just slipped a sweet note onto my sleeping wife's pillow calling her 我的小 臭豆腐 (wo3 de xiao3 chou4 dou4 fu). I'll let you know in the morning how she reacts. See, even after several years of marriage, I've still got game! Thanks, Frank, I owe you one.

I love it. Can't wait to use it! (Don't be surprised if you find yourself on the receiving end of this, Ambtastic. Hehe.)

:-)

that is so cute Frank! yes an equivalent in Chinese:

我的小饺子。

(Wǒ de xiǎo jiǎozi.)

My little dumpling! ;)

I've been known to call my girlfriends "my little ravioli," but then... I am Italian. And often single. :-)

I dont know Frank, it may loose something in the translation. Might be like calling someone a little ravioli or a small pierogi.

Seems like there is definitely not a plethora of examples here. Maybe lordstanley sheds light on what is actually more common? :-) His example is definitely quite universal and so funny because we can all relate. Good job Stan.

Awww, that's sweet! So I could call someone 我的小饺子? :-D

Xiao + [the actual name or some pet animal or the like] usually takes care of everything

Brilliance. Pure brilliance!

lordstanley, hilarious. Good one.

lord stanley. It sounds like she is calling you a "lazy idiot" LOL! i'm only kidding man! I couldnt resist...

My wife from Taiwan calls me something that sounds like, if I Pinyin as much of it as I can, "lei zee, yi di ot". Some of those sounds aren't Mandarin, so it must be something very praiseworthy or affectionate in Taiwanese.

I'm far from an expert on the subject but I don't think you can go wrong with using

親愛的 （qin1 ai4 de)

as a general affectionate diminutive for a spouse or S.O. ... or even more affectionately try:

親愛的你 （qin1 ai4 de ni3)

再見，

何睿林

I'm sure Chinese people have pet names for their spouse. Taiwanese drama's translate some words as "wifey" and such, so there probably are cute pet names.

...I've heard Taiwanese husbands calling their wives 太太 (tài tai). This is translated as "wife" in the dictionary, but I wonder if it's a cutesy way of saying it... actually, I think it went both ways too. Another thing is "Baobei" (or something like it).

I wonder....

Frank,

According to google translator, the translations are as follows:

Sweetie=cheng

Baby=lujiajie

Honey=lijoy

Dear=zi an

Pookie=jinxin

Darling=xiang

Babycakes=zhang

Sweetcheeks=hank

Good question Frank. But I dont think chinese people tend to be very affectionate. There was one lesson about love and jenny said that the chinese dont typcially express love through words. It would be very unusual for even close family members to say I love you. So i wonder if pet names even exist at all! I think we need some real chinese people to fill us in on this topic.