![]() ![]() Yao sounds the same as 要 (yào) - to want. The number one is generally pronounced yī in Chinese, but in some contexts, such as in addresses or phone numbers, it’s pronounced yao to make it more distinct from other similar-sounding numbers. Now, to me, they really don’t sound that similar, but in some Chinese dialects the n and l sounds are pretty interchangeable. Here are the digits 0-9, and some of their possible word equivalents: Got to be a quick number slang way of expressing this, right?ħ456 sounds close enough to 气死我了 (qì sǐ wǒ le) - “you’re angering me to death!” How Chinese Number Slang Works So you’re going through the stages of grief and have passed from tears to fury. When the number “1” is read as “yao” (more on this below), then 514 sounds like 我要死 (wǒ yào sǐ) - “I want to die.” 7465 / 七四五六 (qī sì wǔ liù) - You’re making me angry In a world where lifelong dedication to someone can be expressed with a small string of numbers, even the mildest disappointment can call for something that would otherwise be considered extreme. You may have noticed by now that Chinese number slang tends towards hyperbole. Not exactly high literature, but hey, it makes sense! 514 / 五一四 (wǔ yī sì) - I want to die Read in Chinese as “wǔwǔwǔ,” this is an onomatopoeia for crying. If your numeric declaration of undying love was met with deafening silence and you were feeling a bit upset about it, you could express your emotions by writing 555. When read in Chinese, these numbers sound reasonably close to 爱你一生 (ài nǐ yī shēng) - “love you one life!” 555 / 五五五 (wǔ wǔ wǔ) - Crying noise If typing the numbers “520 1314” takes too much time, there is in fact an even quicker way to tell someone that you’ll love them forever: 2013. When read in Chinese, 1314 sounds similar to 一生一世 (yī shēng yī shì) - “one life, one world,” meaning “for the rest of my life” or “forever.”Īnd, if you put the last two examples together, we get what has to be the quickest way to declare undying love in any language: 520 1314, or 我爱你一生一世 (wǒ ài nǐ yī shēng yī shì) - I love you forever! 2013 / 二零一三 (èr líng yī sān) - I’ll love you forever Put it all together, and you get 我爱你 (wǒ ài nǐ) - “I love you!” 1314 / 一三一四 (yī sān yī sì) - Forever Now we get into more examples using Chinese words that sound similar to numbers. A (very) rough approximation of the English meaning would be “Bye-bye then!” 520 / 五二零 (wǔ èr líng) - I love you “Bā bā liù” sounds close enough to “bye-bye le.” The le refers to the Chinese grammar particle 了, which is used at the end of verbs to indicate past tense or a change in status. While most Chinese number slang terms sound like other Chinese words, this one is used because it sounds like English words… sorta. 886 / 爸爸六 (bā bā liù) - GoodbyeĪn example of Hong Kong Cantonese internet slang, this one actually seems to make make more sense in Mandarin. Most people who use this term probably aren’t aware of the origin story, so don’t worry if it’s a bit confusing or difficult to remember. It was considered modest and politely self-deprecating for scholars to refer to themselves as “half a stack”-in other words, “500.” Half of 500, of course, is 250, so 二百五 came to refer to someone who’s so dumb they aren’t even half a stack! Occasionally, half-forgotten myths from Chinese history have lent significance to certain numbers, and that’s the case with the pretty common insult “250.”īasically, in ancient China, coins were strung together in stacks of 1000. While you’ve probably noticed that China is pretty big on homophones, similar sounds aren’t the only tools used to create Chinese number slang. This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that youĬlick here to get a copy. ![]() Resources for Exploring More of Chinese Number Slang.Read on for a look at the concept of number slang in more detail and some popular examples. ![]() It allows people to form sentences, exchange insults and even declare their undying love, simply by typing out a few carefully chosen digits. Inside this online universe, an interesting phenomenon occurs: Chinese internet slang, and specifically number slang. ![]() Facebook may be blocked in China, but that doesn’t stop young people from wasting away their lives online just like we do in the West! ![]()
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