Whether it’s food, clothes, music or any area where people differ this is a great idiom to use, the Taiwan education department even use medicine in their dictionary example. 因人而異（因人而异） Pinyin: yīn rén ér yì English: to vary from person … Continue reading
Thankfully we have a more positive idiom after last week’s ‘to suffer a crushing defeat‘ example. 自由自在（自由自在） Pinyin: zì yóu zì zài English: Leisurely and carefree; free and easy Image from the movie Free Willy Note: The word in the … Continue reading
It’s no-nonsense idiom time, though hopefully you won’t have to use this one often for describing yourself. It’s great to use for competitions, sports activities and elections etc. 一敗塗地（一败涂地） Pinyin: yī bài tú dì English: to suffer a crushing defeat; … Continue reading
It’s Thursday – which means another no-nonsense Chinese idiom: 栩栩如生（栩栩如生） Pinyin: xŭ xŭ rú shēng English: realistic; lifelike Usage Traditional 這些栩栩如生的香蕉人像是藝術家刻出來的 Simplified 这些栩栩如生的香蕉人像是艺术家刻出来的 Pinyin zhè xiē xŭxŭrúshēng de xiāngjiāo rénxiàng shì yìshùjiā kēchūlái de English These lifelike banana figures were … Continue reading
Welcome back to no-nonsense idioms, let’s get right into it: 一無所有（一无所有） Pinyin: yī wú suǒ yǒu English: to have nothing left at all Usage Traditional 他除了身上的衣服一無所有 Simplified 他除了身上的衣服一无所有 Pinyin tā chúle shēnshàng de yīfú yīwúsuǒyǒu English He’s got nothing left … Continue reading
Okay! The first in a new series that I’m trying out, “no nonsense idioms”, and it’s just that – an idiom, the Pinyin, the translation and an example sentence. We’ll still be running the regular idioms posts with a more … Continue reading
Entrepreneurship is becoming more and more common place now that the web has provided an equal platform upon which to build a business, and with us being smack bang in the middle of the second ‘dotcom’ bubble makes it all … Continue reading
Recently we’ve looked at Chinese idioms, or 成語 （成语 chéng yŭ）(see 10 Chinese idioms to do with animals), but other than this it’s been a part of learning Chinese that we haven’t covered in great detail. So it’s about time … Continue reading
There’s one thing that Chinese isn’t short of and that’s idioms 成語（成语 chéng yŭ）, so much so that we can even break them down into sub categories. For the moment, though, we’ll have a look at one category of idioms … Continue reading
