Useful Chinese Idioms

An important factor in becoming .a more skilled speaker in a language is learning the idiomatic speech of that language. Idioms are the phrases that don't literally mean what they say, but people know what you're talking about because that's how they speak. "it's raining cats and dogs" is an example in English: it's clearly not really raining cats and dogs, but if you say that, people will know you just mean its raining hard.

Here are some useful idioms in Chinese that will make you a more skilled Chinese speaker.

"Yi kou yao ding" means to insist or assert positively. "Yi kou" means "with one bite," "yao" means "bite," and "ding" means "definitely," so this wouldn't make any sense if taken literally.

The Chinese idiom "yan bu you zhong" is a little easier to understand. It means to not say what one means. "Yan" means "words," "bu" means "not," "you" means "goes with" and "zhong" means "heart." So you can see where this idiom comes from and what it means.

Another idiom is "ren yan xi shao," which means "sparsely populated." "Ren" means "people," "yan" means "smoke" and "xi shao" means "few." So this is like saying you can see neither person nor smoke in the area.

The idiom "bi jian ji zhong" means to be rubbing shoulders with people in a packed crowd. This is a Chinese idiom that is actually similar to the English idiom. "Bi" means to compare, "jian" means shoulders, and "ji zhong" means to be on the heels (of people). So this idiom is not so different after all!

Chinese idioms, like English ones, also often involve animals or refer to parables. The idiom "ji tong ya jiang" means that two people have trouble communicating with each other. Literally, it says that a chicken cannot makes itself understood by a duck.

One thing you might have noticed about Chinese idioms is they tend to be four words long. This is the standard length for these set expressions.

Learning idioms helps a language student better understand a language and helps them speak more expressively and colloquially in that language. That is why learning these idioms will help a Chinese language student with the language.