Your Favorite 成语 (Chengyu) and 习语 (Idiom)
Kyle
September 09, 2007, 04:44 AM posted in General DiscussionOne of the aspects of the advanced lessons that I really enjoy is that they tend to have a number of chengyu and xiyu (idioms) that I wouldn't normally be exposed to. I'm curious to know which chengyu others out there favor / get to use quite frequently.
A couple that I'm partial to:
入乡随俗 (When in Rome, do as the Romans. Literally, when you enter another's village, abide by their customs.)
冰冻三尺非一日之寒 (Rome wasn't built in a day. Literally, something alone the lines of it takes time for the water in a river to freeze. Perhaps someone else could provide a more accurate translation.)
malide
September 11, 2007, 11:15 AMSome of the simple ones I have learnt are quite intriguing from a linguistic point of view like 七上八下 (qi1shang4ba1xia4) meaning "at sixes and sevens" although it means literally "seven up and eight down". Also 九牛一毛 (jiu3niu2yi1mao2) meaning "a drop in the ocean" but literally "one hair from nine cows". Similar conceptually to the English sayings although using different imagery.
Kyle
September 09, 2007, 09:34 AMSorry I didn't write that sooner. The pinyin for mine: 1 ru4 xiang1 sui2 su2 2 bing1 dong4 san1 chi3 fei1 yi2 ri4 zhi1 han2 Explanation already provided. =)
henning
September 09, 2007, 09:40 AMOKOK, here you go: 画蛇添足 CEDICT: huàshétiānzú lit.: draw legs on a snake ruin the effect by adding what is superfluous 走马观花 zǒu mǎ guān huā lit: look at the flowers from the horses back Superficiouly look at a lot of things http://blogs.chinesepod.com/de/2007/03/12/auf-dem-gipfel-des-erfolgs-fluchtig-betrachtet/
aeflow
September 09, 2007, 04:20 PMThis has been mentioned before, but: http://www.oneaday.org/archives.html
bazza
September 09, 2007, 08:17 PMI know very few but I discovered this one fairly recently and it was a good one. 度日如年 - one day seems like a year
bazza
September 09, 2007, 08:19 PM*pretend edit button* "...and I thought it was a good one".
furyougaijin
September 09, 2007, 08:22 PM城門失火，殃及池魚
wildyaks
September 09, 2007, 09:24 AMAnd where is the pinyin and an explanation?
huomao
September 11, 2007, 01:46 AMnot necessarily a favourite but one I use very often. 一片迷蒙 (have I got the caracters right)
wildyaks
September 11, 2007, 02:06 AMHey guys, for the lazy ones among us and the less advanced, it would be really nice if you could also give the pinyin and a short explanation. The thing with Chengyu is that they do not always use the most commonly used characters...Thanks
johnb
September 11, 2007, 02:53 AMI personally like: 一分钱一分货 yī fēn qián yī fēn huò (Very) literally: one piece of money, one piece of product, and more correctly, "you get what you pay for." The characters are simple, and it's the sort of the expression you can use all the time.
henning
September 11, 2007, 02:58 AMJohnB., that counts as a real Chengyu? By the way: It is taught in here: http://chinesepod.com/learnchinese/bargaining/
johnb
September 11, 2007, 03:01 AMHennig, I dunno... Wenlin has it marked as a "f.e." fixed expression like other chengyu. I'm not sure if it makes the cut as a real chengyu or not, though there are certainly long ones lurking out there. Regardless, it's a good expression :)
aeflow
September 11, 2007, 03:02 AMMy favorite chengyu are 空穴来风, because no one can figure out what it means ( http://gfcd.fltrp.com/guifan.asp ), and 莫名其妙 vs. 莫明其妙, which according to the 现代汉语规范词典 have slightly different meanings?! ( http://gfcd.fltrp.com/shiyong.asp ).
furyougaijin
September 10, 2007, 08:22 PMRemembered two more that I quite like, both similarly macabre: 兔死狐悲 and 得魚忘筌
henning
September 09, 2007, 09:23 AM画蛇添足 走马观花 (learned that one from Anne. Anne, where are you???)