Daily 成语！

力大无穷， 力大无比= every strong

I'd watch it!

How about some Chad with that Freude? http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/05/chad-freude/

囊中羞涩 náng zhōng xiū sè

nang means pocket, like 包

中 means in

羞涩 it is a metaphor..imagine that you are shamed of something.

it is terrible

or when you ate a pre-mature apple,it is not tasty.

so , when you are being short of money, you are embarassed and feeling very bad,terrible

I never heard it before as a chinese.

I love the way your mind works!

the way I would interpret it is this:

秋....autumn

+

毫..hair

=秋毫...new down [fine feather]...here for me it is evoking the image of the weather getting cooler and new down developing on geese and the like

无...not

犯....violate

...so he/she wouldn't harm even the fine down on a little duckling

隔膜 means a bad relationship.

Aha, so like "layers and layers of seperation". It's a nice metaphor.

Hey this 重重 means "having layers and layers". Which can of course often be expressed as "heavy".

This is also pretty great and memorable due to containing 4 second tones. Not seen that before!

do not use this often. It will offend people.

You can use 多此一举duō cǐ yī jǔ

make an unnecessary change

Great find zhen...多谢

无事生非.....now there's a traslation I would never have come up with for "Much ado about nothing". It strikes me as being closer in feeling to "the devil makes work for idle hands".

I guess 非 in this instance is being used in one of it's submeanings of wrong or evil-doing,dui bu dui? I don't think I've struck it being used like that...usually it the "un/not/non" meaning and of course with the world cup on where seeing it often in 南非.

I do like that this translation has 4 characters for 4 English words...that feels good somehow.

nciku for "tempest in a teapot".

Much Ado About Nothing

hey I like that one zhen. It would be a good enough translation of Shakespeare's "much ado about nothing" I reckon and by the looks of things something the Chinese would understand.

Ah I see, thanks ZLJ!

“小题大做”吧。

“大惊小怪”也是这样的意思

Perhaps not so much "miss" as "didn't understand" :-p

How did you miss this one?

Small? Not really imo. And it's not the end of the world, just one more in a long series of changes that I'm getting tired of adjusting to.

And actually I'm not grumpy now either. Just telling CPod what I think.

Damn you, world clock! :-)

I couldn't find a suitable idiom for "A SMALL CHANGE HAS BEEN PROPOSED TO A WEBSITE! IT IS THE END OF THE WOOOOOORLD"

哈哈哈！这个好笑。喜欢！

I wasn't grumpy this Monday morning. It was already evening here when I noticed the profile page "revamp" thing.

中盘取胜zhōng pán qǔ shèng

it is not a idiom I think.

It is more used in chess or chinese chess.

note the meaning of 盘 plate.

Yea, I don't really know. I've been 一点忙 today, so quickly just found a sports-related 成语, whacked it online then dashed off :-p

I presume you are saying you're not too sure of the meaning either of 中盘取胜 rather than what I've written. I guess when you kicked off with your comment on it being sports themed and with the 世界杯uppermost in our minds I couldn't see how it applied to a team with a never say die attitude. I'm guessing that it may be more related to games than sports. One definition of 中盘 seems to be middle game [in go or chess]. To me the end of a game of chess is the end of the game now matter how few moves have occurred. I guess there can be a certain level of expectation of how many pieces are left at the end of the game and a checkmate that comes early,with many pieces left on the board could have the feel of a mid game victory [ a checkmate that seemed out of the blue]. Or perhaps going mahjong with a totally concealed hand early in the game. I suppose there must be other scenarios in other games or sports but I just can't think of them off the top of my head.

uh。。。 我不太知道了。。。可能一个中国人可以帮忙我们？

有什么意思?

游戏没有完成直到胖女人唱歌

A request! How could I refuse?

出乎预料

Chū hū yùliào

Beyond expectation!

Literally, "Go out almost expectation"

There's actually 3 variants of this. 出乎意外, 出乎意料 and 出乎预料. They all start "go out almost", or "beyond", the first is "beyond accident", the second "beyond expected".

我就希望都记住了！

Clever isn't it. Thanks xiao_liang...another beauty.

act first, report later....exactly

Oh, no wonder I didn't understand it! I accidentally did it in traditional chinese! 言来语去 makes MUCH more sense to me!

Love 言多语失! Great example.

The ~来~去 pattern is fun. 打来打去 dǎ lái dǎ qù--describes blows being traded (Jet Li said this when was talking about a fight scene in one of his movies). 言语 yányǔ is "spoken language" or, in English I guess we could just say "words".

Another 言~语~ chengyu then:

言多语失 yán duō yǔ shī

He (she) who talks too much is prone to error, nciku translates this as, but that sounds a tad unkind. The more words spoken, the more gaffes made, maybe?

--stolen off my dictionary.

Just like: may god be with you

zhù nǐ jí xīng gāo zhào 祝你吉星高照

And not even a namecheck :-p Treat me mean, to keep me keen !

We did it on purpose. Heard you were away ;)

another word 粗茶淡饭http://baike.baidu.com/view/39302.htm

For lacking of money, just can offer you lower-class tea and rice

粗茶”是指较粗老的茶叶,与新茶相对.尽管“粗茶”又苦又涩,

Ah yea, there you go. 我更喜欢你的解释

Interesting that 清 does mean clear [or pure] as you say,but 清茶 can mean "green tea" or "only tea without food" 。Very curious and 清茶和绿茶有什么区别？

hehe,yep..very apt....good one

Nice! It's not only depressing, it's slightly racist! Hehe :-)

I like your breaking down mate. I think you've got a knack for picking the right reading of the characters. The first 2 characters in this one were pretty straightfoward,but the last 2 were less apparent ,but I think you nailed it all the same. Good one. Interesting that one of the other meanings of 夷 other than barbarians is "non-Han people" [fair enough I guess ,hehe...very much in keeping with a 中 mindset]..with an "especially to the East of China"...this is where culture and history/historical attitudes meet language.

Gotcha, thanks zhenlijiang!

This 得 dé is "to attain / gain".

I don't think 得 ever stands for "of".

great chengyu xiao_liang. No appetite for the quintessential Chinese drink and staple food...now that's sad.

This is another great idea...delivering one daily chengyu . Thanks. :)

I bet there have been some epic moments when this saying has come into play. Wasn't there a scene in 赤壁 where the wind was the turning point? Which direction was that wind from? [I do realise it doesn't have to be used so literally]. It'd be very satisfying to crack out this chengyu at such a moment. [Wonder if you can get away with using it at a pinch if its really a sou'easter that's in order].Did they use it in the movie?

Yea, I don't think they are literal equivalents, more metaphorical. In that they express the same idea, just differently.

I see. So that must be the official Chinese version of what 九牛一毛 means. In that case I would say they are very similar, but they are not equivalent sayings.I was interpreting the Chinese saying in terms of the English saying. I guess facing 九牛 is facing a power and it makes more sense that it is interpreted that way. Both contain the sense that it is nowhere near meeting what is required.

I'm not going to pretend the interpretations are entirely my own!

Oh ok, I am. They're totally my own. Honest! You believe me, right?

I wouldn't have interpreted it quite like that. I think "a drop in the ocean" is a very good translation....literally different but the meaning is the same. A drop is composed of water just like the ocean is,but it is insignificant in comparison.I think the hair also represents one strand of hair from one of the nine oxen...also comparitively insignificant. ok, I guess I'm just splitting 毛's.

hey that's a beauty mate. I'll have to try and remember this one. Only just caught up with this thread but I can only encourage you to continue the good work. This one could have been applied to the end of yesterdays lesson...learning English in China.

pigs? i think cow would be a better english translation

this must be a well known one 'cos i've seen it before on the boards and more than once I think.

my dictionary told me what you meant is “七颠八倒”,an idom too.

hehe 小凉

>It means that appearances can be deceiving……

i agree with dan_in_alberta.

I guess it is more of a proverb or saying.

It means that appearances can be deceiving, or we may judge too quickly. Sometimes the actions of a brave person may appear cautious, even though in the end they were the brave one, etc. And a wise person can do something that we misunderstand, and label as stupid, although it may become obvious later that he was being clever.

大勇若怯，大智若愚

凉 :-p You don't think it means that? What does it mean then?

Is it an idiom.

Everything is topsy turvy

hi 小亮，i dont think so.hehe.

I think it still counts as an idiom - I don't understand this one though! What does it mean? Everything is topsy turvy?