Hip Chinese Words

Are you learning Mandarin? Do you want to learn some hip Chinese words popular on the internet, like "囧"? Do you know which Chinese word corresponds to "bump"? Curious?

Learning some popular hip Chinese words should make your Chinese more native and trendy.

1. 坑爹 (kengdie) kēng diē /knng-dyeh/

It means something or someone is greatly discrepant to people's expectation, mostly used for self-mockery. 坑爹 is widely used on many occasions, such as:

You bought a "wonderful" watermelon in the market. However, when you cut it open, you find the inside is as the right picture. Then, you can say, "这也太坑爹了吧!!!!" (zhè yě tài kēngdiēlē bā /jer yeh teye knng-dyeh-ler ba/ 'That's so typical!!').

Or when your boss set a very tough performance target for you, which you think is impossible to achieve, you can say: 这不明摆着坑爹么?! (zhè bù míngbǎizhē kēngdiē me /jer boo ming-beye-jer knng-dyeh mer/), which means 'This is obviously a trick. '

Sometimes, kengdie can be used to express your praise for something, and then it means 'brilliant, smart'. Suppose you are reading a novel, and the ending is really unexpected but wise. Then you can say: 坑爹啊! 这也太有才了吧! (kēngdiē ā! zhè yě tài yǒucái le bā! /knng-dyeh aa! Jer yeh teye yo-tseye ler ba!/), which means 'I didn't see that coming! That's so ingenious!'

2. 囧 (jiong) jiǒng /jyong/

Does it look like a face with helpless expression? 囧 means gloomy, upset, embarrassing, or helpless, though its original meaning is bright. It is widely used in online chat, blogs, and BBS. There is a pictogram showing a person very jiong: 囧rz (Does it look like a helpless person on his knees?).

How to use it? For example: One day, a boy came across the apple of his eye, and showed his gentlest smile to her. However, there was a small piece of green lettuce on his white teeth, which made his smile really 囧.

3. 顶 (ding) dǐng /ding/

It is similar to "bump" in English, and it is widely used on internet forums. At the very beginning, ding meant "support the author's idea". But today, most of the replies using ding are nonsense, and they are recognized as spam. So you'd better use it as little as you can.

4. 打酱油 (dajiangyou) dǎjiàngyóu /daa-jyang-yoh/

It is used to declare that you dp not care about something, and you do not have any comment. It is a facetious way to say "it is none of my business". The original meaning of dajiangyou is "to buy some retail soy sauce". Buying soy sauce is something which is always done by a little child.

If you are asked about something on which you do not want to make a comment, you can reply: 我只是出来打酱油的.
wò zhǐshì chūlái dǎjiàngyóu de /wor zhrr-shrr choo-leye dah-jyang-yoh-de/ I am only out to buy some soy sauce, I have no thing to do with it.)

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