How do you say "Take a guess?" ... actually I know.
Lantian
July 19, 2007, 04:23 AM posted in General DiscussionGAME SHOWS - over at this week's Movie Madness we were asked to guess the name of the movie dubbed into Chinese. It's fun to do. As I was waiting for our hosts to reveal the movie I thought of a common exchange I have in China. It goes like this:
LT: 你猜。
AB: 猜不到。
LT: 哦
(LT: ni cai; AB: cai bu dao; LT: o)
(LT: You guess; AB: I have no idea; LT: Ohh)
cai1, 猜, verb to guess. Hanzi radical looks like a cat/animal and qing
My variations include,
你猜一下。 猜一下吧。
Anyway, it's one of my 'secret techniques' to prolong a conversation until I'm ignored. Hey...gotta engage the Chinese somehow! BTW, the "cai" is not particularly easy to pronounce correctly, but after making them guess that you're asking to guess is a fun exchange too!
Anybody else got some good conversation starters, prolongers, give-me-time-to think, Chinese phrases?
danjo
July 19, 2007, 05:04 AMIt is likely regional (here in Gansu 啥 is usually used as a replacement for 什么) but Chinese in my town constantly say 那个啥 nèige shá in conversation when pausing to think.
danjo
July 19, 2007, 05:05 AMIt is likely regional (here in Gansu 啥 is usually used as a replacement for 什么) but Chinese in my town constantly say 那个啥 nèige shá in conversation when pausing to think.
Lantian
July 19, 2007, 05:17 AMHaha - I like that danjo. Does it have any kind of sarcastic, negative tone though? I usually associate some sort of sarcasm with 啥。 If not though, I might just start peppering my conversation with ’那个啥‘， easy sounds to say, sounds cool. Do guys use 'na ge sha' versus a 'nei ge' ? Does anyone ever say 'na ge sha.’ ？
danjo
July 19, 2007, 05:41 AMNo negative tone, here at least it's perfectly normal conversation. Actually 啥 replaces 什么 in most cases; restaurants normally ask 你吃个啥？and 啥意思？is considerably more common than 什么意思? I think it is always "nei ge" as opposed to "na ge". 那个啥 really rolls off the tongue, I like it. I don't know the character but there is a similar situation here with zá (it's either second or third tone) replacing 怎么. So I hear "za le?" instead of "zenme la?". Actually "za le?" and "没 za" is a common conversation prolonger I hear. These are used when speaking 普通话 but when it comes to the local dialect I have no idea what's going on, though the few phrases I have learned get guaranteed reactions.
KennyK
July 19, 2007, 06:13 AMuuuummmm.... "那个..." or... uuummmm... the longer version "那个什么"..... uuuummmm..... is simply the Chinese version of "ummmm...."
KennyK
July 19, 2007, 06:22 AMi wouldn't recommend using it that much though, as my speech teacher from university would probably scold you... as he did me many times over... :P
Lantian
July 19, 2007, 07:18 AMKennyK, sounds like a perfect reason TO use it to me, 啥的呀！ 老师，啥意思？ ！ ;p
danjo
July 19, 2007, 08:25 AMI will say that my "waiban" (外办? Come to think of it I'm not sure what the characters are or if it's a real word, but it's the commonly used term in English for the person at a school who takes care of the foreign teachers) uses 那个啥 all the time, and she's originally from the northeast and has maybe the most standard Chinese for miles. She may have been corrupted by local habits but she is rather well spoken and particular so I feel justified in using it.
KennyK
July 19, 2007, 04:33 AMsomebody asked a question that you don't know or don't wanna answer right away... 你覺得呢??? (what do you think?)