Chinese Lingo on the Internet


Can you decipher the code?



A lot of the textual Chinese lingo used by locals is made up of numbers. While this appears to be some kind of code, all you have to do is simply sound out the numbers (add a bit of a Beijing accent, meaning an “-er” at the end of each word, if it helps) and decipher the message.

Number abbreviations

One of the most frequently used abbreviations comes in the form of numbers. Sound them out phonetically and with just a bit of imagination, you will be able to figure out the meaning. Some of them, such as 2333 and 250 are just numbers and don’t have any phonetic meaning.

2333 comes from the image code of a laughing cat, meaning that when the image doesn’t load properly 2333 appears. That is why this is nowadays used as an abbreviation for “ha ha ha”.



NumberPhoneticsMeaning
520wǔ’èr líng  = wǒ ài nǐ


我爱你

I love you
94jiǔ shí sì = jiù shì 就是 Exactly
666liù liù liù = liū liū liū


溜溜溜

To be good at something
555wǔ wǔ wǔ = wū wū wū 呜呜呜Crying (symbolizes the noise)
88 / 3Q883 Q (“thank you”) bàibài 拜拜Thank you bye bye
2333…hāhāhā 哈哈哈Ha ha ha
250èrbǎiwǔ 二百五Someone who is not smart


Letter abbreviations

A different form of abbreviations comes in the form of letters. These are just the beginning letters of the characters pinyin and are used to express certain terms or to try and hide from governmental censorship. Sometimes, code words are also used when speaking of the government or governmental employees.

For example, 五毛党 wǔmáo dǎng, stands for the ’50 cent party’. This term originates from those hired by the government to write pro-government posts on the internet and are rumored to have been paid 50 cents to do so.

 

LettersPhoneticsMeaningContext
BLbōlí 玻璃Boy LoverWhile these characters literally mean “glass”, when typing BL, for boylover, these are the first two characters which appear
GGgēgē 哥Brother, Bro Used in the same setting as “bro”
MMmèimei 妹妹SisterOnly used for young, pretty girls
XSWLxiào sǐ wǒle 笑死我了Dying of laughterTranslates to our LMAO
ZFzhèngfǔ 政府The governmentThis abbreviation is used to pass on the use of characters when speaking of the government
PMPpāi mǎ pì 拍马屁Patting the horses behindTo overly flatter someone or to suck up to someone


Do you think you will be able to decipher messages you get from now on? Is there any other code you think is vital to surviving in China and think others should know? Let us know below!

 

Want to know more about Chinese slang? Check out our article!



31 May 2017

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