Heads or Tails?

bazza
 January 22, 2008, 09:17 PM posted in General Discussion

How do say heads or tails in Chinese?

头 seems to be heads and 花 tails, but 头还是花？doesn't seem to be a common phrase.

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sparechange
 January 22, 2008, 09:29 PM

Is the coin toss a common phenomenon in China?

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bazza
 January 22, 2008, 11:23 PM

我不知道

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kimiik
 January 23, 2008, 07:47 AM

正面 and 背面

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tvan
 January 23, 2008, 02:33 PM

Is 花 (Hūa) used for tails in Chinese? Translated literally, it would be 尾巴 (WěiBa), but I know direct translations can be problematic.

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henning
 January 23, 2008, 02:41 PM

According to my collegue it is also common in China and the translations are either 正面 vs. 反面 or 字 vs. 头

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tvan
 January 24, 2008, 02:59 AM

Another possibility is “头” and "尾“; in fact, I believe 有头有尾 is an idiom meaning from beginning to end. 有头无尾 is an idiom meaning to start, but never finish in a bad way.