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Chinese expressions can be puzzling when translated word for word. These ten examples include everyday sayings and four-character idioms (成语, chéngyǔ), with meanings and sentences to help you recognize how they are used.
Daily Expressions
丢人 diū rén
This word seems to mean “losing (丢) a person (人)”, which actually means “losing face; be ashamed of”. A similar expression would be 丢面子 (losing face). Ex: 你是嫌我丢人吗？ Are you ashamed of me?
吃醋 chī cù
Translated directly, this means to “eat (吃) vinegar (醋)”. As we all know how sour vinegar could be, having too much vinegar could be expressing 心里酸 (sour in one’s heart) = getting green-eyed; become jealous of. When people say 吃飞 (flying) 醋, it means to become jealous without good reason, which is often used in relationships.
Ex: 你别吃飞醋了好吗？ Will you stop being jealous without good reason? (I have nothing to do with him/her)
背黑锅 bēi hēi guō
背黑锅 means to take the blame for someone else’s mistake or to be made a scapegoat. Its literal image is “carrying a black cooking pot on one’s back”; that image does not make 黑 a general word meaning “crime”. Example: 他一出错就让我背黑锅。 He makes me take the blame every time he does something wrong.
via Pixabay
落汤鸡 luò tāng jī
落汤鸡 is a vivid comparison for someone who is soaked through, like a chicken that has fallen into soup. It describes a drenched appearance, rather than a separate etymology about dripping water.
Ex: 大雨把大家浇成了落汤鸡。 The heavy rain drenched everyone.
吹牛皮 chuī niú pí
吹牛皮, literally “blow cowhide”, means to brag or boast. 吹牛 is a common shorter version. Several origin stories circulate, so a cowhide-raft story should not be treated as an established etymology. 拍马屁, literally “pat a horse’s backside”, is another informal expression, meaning to flatter someone or butter them up.
Ex: 他既调皮，又爱吹牛皮。 He is naughty, and loves to boast as well.
Idioms with Animals
Animals appear in many Chinese idioms and in the twelve zodiac signs. 成语 are established expressions, often four characters long; some preserve allusions to older stories.
一石二鸟 yī shí èr niǎo
一石二鸟 means to achieve two goals with one action, much like “kill two birds with one stone”. 一箭双雕 (“one arrow, two eagles”) is similar. Neither expression automatically implies a malicious plan.
Ex: 他不但做成了一笔生意，还结交了一位新朋友，真是一石二鸟。 He not only settled a business deal but also made a new friend, now that’s two birds with one stone.
沉鱼落雁 chén yú luò yàn
沉鱼落雁 is a literary expression for extraordinary beauty: its imagery is fish sinking and wild geese falling, not fish drowning. Traditionally it describes a woman’s beauty. 闭月羞花 (“make the moon hide and flowers feel shy”) is another literary beauty idiom. These are stylized compliments, not neutral everyday descriptions.
Ex: 西施之美，简直是沉鱼落雁，闭月羞花。 The beauty of Xi Shi could only be described as “drop-dead gorgeous”.
狐假虎威 hú jiǎ hǔ wēi
狐假虎威 means “the fox borrows the tiger’s power”. In the fable, a fox persuades a tiger to follow it and claims the other animals flee because they fear the fox. They actually fear the tiger behind it. The idiom criticizes someone who intimidates others by relying on a powerful person’s authority.
A more positive idiom related to tigers is 卧虎藏龙 (crouching tiger, hidden dragon), which indicates hidden or undiscovered talents.
Ex: 他以为自己的岳父是总经理，就可以狐假虎威欺负人吗？ He thinks that he could bully people just because his father-in-law is the general manager?
画龙点睛 huà lóng diǎn jīng
画龙点睛 means “paint a dragon and dot its eyes”: add the finishing touch that brings a work to life. The legend concerns the Liang-dynasty painter Zhang Sengyou, not a Tang-dynasty painter. In the story, he paints dragons without eyes, warning that adding their eyes will make them fly away. When he finally adds eyes to two dragons, they fly into the sky. This is a legend, not a verified supernatural event.
画蛇添足 means “draw a snake and add feet”. It criticizes an unnecessary addition that spoils what was already complete. It does not mean to invent facts out of thin air.
Ex: 这句话真是起了画龙点睛的作用。 This sentence really serves as the finishing touch
via Pixabay
塞翁失马 sài wēng shī mǎ
This is based on a story from a book written in the Western Han Dynasty (西汉). An old man living near the country borders had a talent of fortune-telling. When one of his horses ran off to the other side he said, “why can’t it be a blessing?” A few months later, when his horse returned with many fine horses, he said, “why can’t it be a catastrophe?” When his son fell off a horse and broke his leg, he said, “why can’t it be a good thing?”. A year later, when the war broke, all the men in the village were forced to join the army and most of them died. But the old man’s son was saved because of his lame leg.This metaphor of “an old man (翁) living in the borders (塞) losing (失) a horse(马)” means that although we suffer losses, we might gain benefits later on. It also means that a bad thing can be turned into a good thing under certain conditions.塞翁失马 is also commonly followed by 焉知非福 (how do we know it is not a blessing), meaning “loss is not always a bad thing, but a blessing in disguise.” The story emphasizes that good and bad fortune can change; it does not promise that every loss will lead to a benefit.Ex: 塞翁失马，焉知非福；或当上帝关上一扇门时, 就总会打开一扇窗。A loss may turn out to be a blessing in disguise; or when God closes a door, he always opens a window.
Choose one expression and write a situation in which it would fit. Check whether it is informal, literary or critical before using it in conversation.
