He knew that she had broken many cups a few days prior, so he thought she might need a new set of cups. One of my foreign friends had a funny story about “bēijù.” It was his Chinese girlfriend’s birthday. “悲剧” and “杯具” have the same pronunciation “bēijù,” but “悲剧” means tragedy and “杯具” means cups. In fact, there are some word-homonyms in Chinese that can be useful for studying Chinese in general. To avoid awkward situations like the one in this joke, it is important to learn more about Chinese homonyms, as there are many of them. This kind of situation represents the everyday humor found in Chinese homonyms. However, the word for “star” (星星 xīngxing) and “gorilla” (猩猩 xīngxing) have the same sound and tone in Mandarin, which made the student ask if they could use a checkmark instead of drawing a gorilla. For example, in this joke, the teacher was telling students to mark an important section of text with a star. Xiao Zhi: Can I just use a checkmark? A gorilla is too hard to draw…Ĭhinese homonyms often result in humorous situations. Lǎoshī: Zhè yì tí hěn zhòngyào, zàiqián miàn huà xīngxing. Just before a test, the teacher was helping the students prepare by pointing out the important parts of the text. Here is an example: The English translation is as follows： For instance, 代价 (dài jià) means price or expense, while 待嫁 (dài jià) has the same pronunciation but means that a girl is waiting to be married.īecause of Chinese homonyms, we often have some jokes that make people laugh. The second is when words share the same pronunciations but have different characters and meanings. For example, 生气 (shēng qì) not only means being angry with somebody but also means vigor or vitality in Chinese. The first is when words share the same characters and pronunciations but have different meanings. There are two categories of Chinese homonyms. In Chinese, a lot of homonyms are used in different contexts, so understanding the context can help you determine the meaning of the word. Another useful method is to pay attention to the context in which the word is being used. One method to easily distinguish each word is to understand the importance of homonyms and learn them in groups.
That’s why it’s important to recognize Chinese characters and learn more about their meanings. In daily communication, especially in conversation, you may encounter many words or characters with the same pronunciation. There are many homonyms in Chinese, far more than you may initially imagine. In linguistics, a group of words that share the same spellings and pronunciations but have many different meanings is called a homonym. However, for an English learner, it can be confusing because “tear” has two different meanings. “Do you believe my tears can tear up the world?” As a native English speaker, you may not notice anything strange about this sentence.
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