Vocabulary question

sssasteacher
 June 13, 2014, 03:01 AM posted in General Discussion

How do you express the sentiment of "I'm speechless" in Chinese? The problem is I'm finding too many options. Can someone comment on which of these is actually used, and what the differences are?

1) 语塞

2) 哑口

3)张口结舌

4)无言可对

5)有嘴没舌

6)盘倒

7)张口结舌

8) the most mysterious of all, 汗, about which mdbg says "perspiration / sweat / CL: 滴, 頭｜头, 身 / to be speechless (out of helplessness, embarrassment etc) (Internet slang used as an interjection)". I have no idea how to translate that into actual usage.

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DavidXuzhou
 June 26, 2014, 03:36 AM

Hi Polugaevsky,

We will talk about your question in this week's QingWen show. Please tune in on this Saturday.

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sssasteacher
 June 28, 2014, 04:54 AM

Hi Davidxuzhou, thank you for your replies, I will definitely tune in when I can, and I very much enjoy hearing you speak. As far as my "trapped" question, I just mean it as a humorous statement. In America, the word "trapped" is used frequently, for all sorts of non-serious situations. You can be "trapped" in a bad relationship; "trapped" in a bad thinking process; "trapped" by women; so claustrophobic you feel "trapped" in the elevator, etc. I was just wondering what word that "trapped" would be translated to in Chinese. How about "卡" for in the elevator?

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DavidXuzhou

It's a very interesting topic for explaining all "trapped" as you mentioned. We will do it in future Qing Wen shows. I found the new Qing Wen show was released today. So, check it out if you have time.