{"id":6901,"date":"2016-03-19T11:25:36","date_gmt":"2016-03-19T11:25:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/?p=6901"},"modified":"2024-05-12T09:59:36","modified_gmt":"2024-05-12T09:59:36","slug":"confusing-chinese-n-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/confusing-chinese-n-word.html","title":{"rendered":"Confusing Chinese &#8220;N&#8221; word: \u90a3\u4e2a(n\u00e0 ge\/ n\u00e8i ge)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In my first year as a high school Chinese teacher in India, I noticed that sometimes my students giggled when I spoke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At first I thought it was my Chinglish and <a href=index-148.html>tones<\/a>. But then one day they asked me: &#8220;What did you say just now?&#8221; I repeated but they laughed even harder and pointed out that I kept saying the &#8220;N&#8221; word again and again. At that time I didn&#8217;t even know what the &#8220;N&#8221; word was and I was speaking in Chinese not English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Come on guys, be fair!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"wpex-responsive-media\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Real Usages of \u201c\u90a3\u4e2a\u201d - The Confusing Chinese &quot;N&quot; Word\" width=\"980\" height=\"551\" src=-0yoyes3aia250f.html  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Fortunately, we finally figured out the issue. I didn&#8217;t get fired (woop, woop!) and my students learned some uses of &#8220;\u90a3\u4e2a&#8221; pronounced as &#8220;n\u00e0 ge&#8221; or &#8220;n\u00e8i ge&#8221;. I, know, it sounds similar to the &#8220;N&#8221; word, right? Therefore, I think it&#8217;s necessary to sit down and have a little chat about how Chinese people use this word, just in case you feel uncomfortable when you talk to a Chinese person.<br><\/p>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"1-interjection\">1. Interjection<\/h2>\n\n\n<p>&#8220;\u90a3\u4e2a(n\u00e8i ge)&#8221; is often used as interjection to <strong>express thoughtful absorption, hesitation, doubt, or perplexity<\/strong>. It&#8217;s basically a filler word, pretty similar to &#8220;ummm&#8221; or &#8220;weeellllll&#8221;. For example,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"custom_example_style\"><em>Yesterday I went to that\u2026that\u2026 <\/em><br><em>\u6211\u6628\u5929\u53bb\u4e86\u90a3\u4e2a\u2026\u2026\u90a3\u4e2a\u2026\u2026<\/em><br><em>(W\u01d2 zu\u00f3ti\u0101n q\u00f9 le n\u00e0ge\u2026 n\u00e0ge\u2026)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><u>Note:<\/u> I just can&#8217;t remember the name of the place, so I use\u90a3\u4e2ato express I am thinking.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"custom_example_style\"><em>Yesterday we learned &#8220;lunch&#8221;, ummm\u2026 Today we will learn &#8220;brunch&#8221;. <\/em><br><em>\u6628\u5929\u6211\u4eec\u5b66\u4e86\u201clunch\u201d, \u90a3\u4e2a\u2026\u2026\uff0c\u4eca\u5929\u6211\u4eec\u8981\u5b66\u201cbrunch\u201d\u3002<\/em><br><em>(Zu\u00f3ti\u0101n w\u01d2 men xu\u00e9 le &#8220;lunch&#8221;, n\u00e8i ge\u2026 j\u012bnti\u0101n w\u01d2men y\u00e0o xu\u00e9 &#8220;brunch&#8221;.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><u>Note:<\/u><\/em><em> Here <\/em><em>\u90a3\u4e2a<\/em><em> is used to fill in the gap of two sentences. I need a second but I don&#8217;t want silence.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Using this too much will make your speech a bit stilted, but it&#8217;s better than complete silence if you plan on saying something else!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most Chinese people like me don&#8217;t even realize the amount that we use this, which is why when my students asked me what I had said, it took me a really long time to work out what they meant. It&#8217;s so automatic that filtered it out when thinking over what I said. However, learners are more sensitive to it.<\/p>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"2-demonstrative-pronoun\">2. Demonstrative pronoun<\/h2>\n\n\n<p>Another interesting usage of &#8220;\u90a3\u4e2a&#8221; is to <strong>express something you can&#8217;t say directly <\/strong>(for example you are too shy to say or you don&#8217;t want others know\u2026)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"custom_example_style\"><em>Honey, tonight let&#8217;s XXXX.<\/em><br><em>\u4eb2\u7231\u7684\uff0c\u4eca\u5929\u665a\u4e0a\u6211\u4eec\u90a3\u4e2a\u5427\u3002<\/em><br><em>(Q\u012bn\u2019\u00e0i de, j\u012bnti\u0101n w\u01censhang w\u01d2 men n\u00e8i ge ba.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Be careful, you definitely need a context to understand what &#8220;\u90a3\u4e2a&#8221; means in this case.<\/p>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"3-excuse-me\">3. Excuse me<\/h2>\n\n\n<p>&#8220;\u90a3\u4e2a&#8221; can be used as &#8220;excuse me&#8221; to get someone&#8217;s attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"custom_example_style\"><em>Excuse me, where is the subway station?<\/em><br><em>\u90a3\u4e2a\uff0c\u5730\u94c1\u7ad9\u5728\u54ea\u91cc\uff1f<\/em><br><em>(N\u00e8i ge, d\u00ecti\u011bzh\u00e0n z\u00e0i n\u01celi?)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Note: It&#8217;s not as polite as &#8220;\u8bf7\u95ee(q\u01d0ngw\u00e8n)&#8221;, but it&#8217;s still perfectly acceptable in an informal setting, such as in a corner shop.<\/p>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"4-that\">4. That<\/h2>\n\n\n<p>This is the meaning you will probably know anyway from textbooks. It&#8217;s always used before a noun, since &#8220;\u4e2a&#8221; is a measure word, therefore make sure the noun fits the measure word &#8220;\u4e2a&#8221;!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"custom_example_style\"><em>that person<\/em><br><em>\u90a3\u4e2a\u4eba<\/em><br><em>(n\u00e0 ge r\u00e9n)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, hopefully now you understand a little bit more about \u90a3\u4e2a and won&#8217;t just think Chinese people are being really rude! We even don&#8217;t even know what the &#8220;N&#8221; word is! Hopefully now you can pick out how it is used in it&#8217;s many applications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In my first year as a high school Chinese teacher in India, I noticed that sometimes my students giggled when I spoke. At first I thought it was my Chinglish and tones. But then one day they asked me: &#8220;What did you say just now?&#8221; I repeated but they laughed even harder and pointed out&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":6904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,176],"tags":[122,93,80,81,84],"post_series":[],"class_list":["post-6901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-learn-mandarin-online","category-usage","tag-chinese-culture","tag-how-to-use","tag-self-study","tag-speaking","tag-vocabulary","entry","has-media"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Confusing Chinese &quot;N&quot; word: \u90a3\u4e2a(n\u00e0 ge\/ n\u00e8i ge)<\/title>\n
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