Chinese Number Slang : The Essential Guide to Mandarin Numerical Speak
▻https://www.fluentu.com/blog/chinese/chinese-number-slang
L’éthymologie du 250 est une histoire charmante qui témoigne de l’humour populare chinois. L’argot berlinois connaît sa fausse pièce de monnaie de cinquante centimes « falscher Fuffziger » qui est une expression pour désigner un menteur, un traitre, un personnage douteux ou louche. Le code numérique pour « idiot » est typiquement chinois et bien plus abstrait qu’une métaphore. D’abord on remarque que sa prononciation omet le dix (shi), alors sa signification exacte serait « 205 », mais tout le monde entend et comprend « 250 ».
Le numéro le plus dangereux et agressif est le 4 四 . Sa prononciation « sì » ent fait un homonyme de 死 sǐ qui signifie mourir ou la mort. . Alors si vous trouvez dans votre boîte de réception SMS le message 444 vous savez que vous devez courir vite pour échapper à ce qu’on vous a destiné.
Le chinois est concis et a tendence omettre tout élément linguistique inutile. Les homophonies omniprésentes permettent de « numériser » phonétiquement n’importe quel mot ou expression à la manière des LOL, RTFM, AFK etc.
C’est aussi drôle et difficile à mémoriser pour les débutants que les 成语 chéngyǔ , les expressions idiomatiques qui sont la clé d’une véritable maîtrise de la langue chinoise.
Aujourd’hui les listes de codes sont des documents historiques. Dans les années 1980 la vie à Hongkong, Taiwan et Singapour s’organisait autour des pagers prédécesseurs des SMS aux capacités encore plus limitées. Tout le monde portait avec soi son petit bipbip. La limitation radicale du nombre de signes transmis et la difficulté de les entrer sur un minuscule clavier qui n’avait parfois que deux ou trois touches encourageait l’utilisation de code numériques á la place de mots.
5.10.2023 ny Nathan Thomas Facebook may be blocked in China, but that doesn’t stop young people from wasting away their lives online just like we do in the West!
Inside this online universe, an interesting phenomenon occurs: Chinese internet slang, and specifically number slang.
It allows people to form sentences, exchange insults and even declare their undying love, simply by typing out a few carefully chosen digits.
Read on for a look at the concept of number slang in more detail and some popular examples.
Contents
250 / 二百五 (èr bǎi wǔ) — Idiot
886 / 爸爸六 (bā bā liù) — Goodbye
520 / 五二零 (wǔ èr líng) — I love you
1314 / 一三一四 (yī sān yī sì) — Forever
2013 / 二零一三 (èr líng yī sān) — I’ll love you forever
555 / 五五五 (wǔ wǔ wǔ) — Crying noise
514 / 五一四 (wǔ yī sì) — I want to die
7465 / 七四五六 (qī sì wǔ liù) — You’re making me angry
How Chinese Number Slang Works
Resources for Exploring More of Chinese Number Slang
And One More Thing...
250 / 二百五 (èr bǎi wǔ) — Idiot
We begin with a special case. While you’ve probably noticed that China is pretty big on homophones, similar sounds aren’t the only tools used to create Chinese number slang.
Occasionally, half-forgotten myths from Chinese history have lent significance to certain numbers, and that’s the case with the pretty common insult “250.”
Basically, in ancient China, coins were strung together in stacks of 1000. It was considered modest and politely self-deprecating for scholars to refer to themselves as “half a stack”—in other words, “500.” Half of 500, of course, is 250, so 二百五 came to refer to someone who’s so dumb they aren’t even half a stack!
Most people who use this term probably aren’t aware of the origin story, so don’t worry if it’s a bit confusing or difficult to remember.
886 / 爸爸六 (bā bā liù) — Goodbye
An example of Hong Kong Cantonese internet slang, this one actually seems to make make more sense in Mandarin. While most Chinese number slang terms sound like other Chinese words, this one is used because it sounds like English words… sorta.
“Bā bā liù” sounds close enough to “bye-bye le.” The le refers to the Chinese grammar particle 了, which is used at the end of verbs to indicate past tense or a change in status. A (very) rough approximation of the English meaning would be “Bye-bye then!”
520 / 五二零 (wǔ èr líng) — I love you
Now we get into more examples using Chinese words that sound similar to numbers. Let’s break this one down:
五 (wǔ) — 5 = 我 (wǒ) — I
二 (èr) — 2 = 爱 (ài) — love
零 (líng) — 0 = 你 (nǐ) — you
Put it all together, and you get 我爱你 (wǒ ài nǐ) — “I love you!”
1314 / 一三一四 (yī sān yī sì) — Forever
When read in Chinese, 1314 sounds similar to 一生一世 (yī shēng yī shì) — “one life, one world,” meaning “for the rest of my life” or “forever.”
And, if you put the last two examples together, we get what has to be the quickest way to declare undying love in any language: 520 1314, or 我爱你一生一世 (wǒ ài nǐ yī shēng yī shì) — I love you forever!
2013 / 二零一三 (èr líng yī sān) — I’ll love you forever
OK, so I guess I was wrong. If typing the numbers “520 1314” takes too much time, there is in fact an even quicker way to tell someone that you’ll love them forever: 2013.
When read in Chinese, these numbers sound reasonably close to 爱你一生 (ài nǐ yī shēng) — “love you one life!”
555 / 五五五 (wǔ wǔ wǔ) — Crying noise
If your numeric declaration of undying love was met with deafening silence and you were feeling a bit upset about it, you could express your emotions by writing 555.
Read in Chinese as “wǔwǔwǔ,” this is an onomatopoeia for crying. Not exactly high literature, but hey, it makes sense!
514 / 五一四 (wǔ yī sì) — I want to die
You may have noticed by now that Chinese number slang tends towards hyperbole.
In a world where lifelong dedication to someone can be expressed with a small string of numbers, even the mildest disappointment can call for something that would otherwise be considered extreme.
When the number “1” is read as “yao” (more on this below), then 514 sounds like 我要死 (wǒ yào sǐ) — “I want to die.”
7465 / 七四五六 (qī sì wǔ liù) — You’re making me angry
So you’re going through the stages of grief and have passed from tears to fury. Got to be a quick number slang way of expressing this, right?
7456 sounds close enough to 气死我了 (qì sǐ wǒ le) — “you’re angering me to death!”
How Chinese Number Slang Works
Here are the digits 0-9, and some of their possible word equivalents:
零 (líng) — zero. This can be used to mean 你 (nǐ) — you. Now, to me, they really don’t sound that similar, but in some Chinese dialects the n and l sounds are pretty interchangeable.
一 (yī) — one. Another one that’s a bit tricky. The number one is generally pronounced yī in Chinese, but in some contexts, such as in addresses or phone numbers, it’s pronounced yao to make it more distinct from other similar-sounding numbers. Yao sounds the same as 要 (yào) — to want.
二 (èr) — two. This one’s a bit easier! It sounds similar to 饿 (è) — hungry, and similar enough to 爱 (ài) — love.
三 (sān) — three. “Three” is used in particularly sappy examples of internet slang, often as a stand-in for 生 (shēng) — life.
四 (sì) — four. The most unlucky number in Chinese, 四 sounds like 死 (sǐ) — death.
五 (wǔ) — five. This one sounds similar to 我 (wǒ) — I. It’s also an onomatopoeia for crying.
六 (liù) — six. “Six” is used in an example that borrows from Cantonese, and also as the grammar particle 了(le).
七 (qī) — seven. This sounds the same as 气 (qì) — air, and is used in words such as 生气 (shēng qì) — to be angry.
八 (bā) — eight. It sounds like 爸爸 (bà ba) — dad, or a transliteration of the English “bye-bye.”
九 (jiǔ) — nine. This is the only digit without a use in the examples above. Congratulations, number nine!
Resources for Exploring More of Chinese Number Slang
For more ammunition for your ever-growing arsenal of Chinese slang, check out this great video from YouTube channel Off The Great Wall:
Here are a few other resources to check out:
Wikipedia. This Chinese Internet Slang Wikipedia page dives into even more number slang—if you’re ready for it! Also worth checking out are the Latin and Chinese character abbreviations, if you don’t want to just stop at numbers.
You may be realizing that Chinese internet slang is a wild and crazy world! There are practically unlimited possibilities out there for combining numbers to make words and sentences like the examples above.
Some are more commonly used than others, of course, and because pop culture is ever changing, I’d strongly recommend you check with a Chinese friend or teacher before you actually use any of these examples.
Now, 886 from me!
Chat Codes
►https://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/pagercodes.php
Chat Codes, YellowBridge Chinese Language & Culture
►https://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/pagercodes.php
Liste très longue de codes.
The proliferation of pager, chat rooms, instant messaging, and phone text messaging has created a whole new set of acronyms and codes designed to minimize the amount of typing. First it was fairly simple acronyms like IMHO (“in my humble opinion“) or AFAIK (“as far as I know’). Telephone and pagers, lacking a full keyboard required more inventive approaches such as using 07734 for “hello“ (read upside down) or “10“ for “you are perfect“ (as in a perfect 10). Modern communications technologies, especially the cell phones, are if anything, more popular in Asia than in the West. So what do the Chinese use for codes? The Chinese language, not being alphabetic, does not lend itself to the use of acronyms. However, a few acronyms based on pinyin spellings do exist. Examples include GG for older brother (哥哥, gege) or MM for younger sister (妹妹, meimei).
Fortunately, long before the invention of the telephone, the Chinese already had a tradition of associating certain words with numbers or things based on the similarities of sound. For example, the number eight (八) is considered a lucky number because it is pronounced “ba“, which sounds like the Chinese word for prosperity (發, fa). Similarly, the number four (四) is associated with bad luck because it is pronounced “si“, which sounds like the Chinese word for death (死,si). Given this tradition, it should be no surprise that there is in fact a large number of numeric codes in existence. Most of the words are represented with numbers having a similar sound or a least a similar leading consonant. One notable exception is the number used to represent the word “you“, the number 0. Although the Chinese word for zero does not sound much like like the word for “you“, the choice may have resulted from the fact that there is no close-sounding candidate while the same number is used in English codes to represent the same meaning.
Code 繁體 ↔ 简体 English
026 你来啦 You are here
028 你来吧 Come here
0358 你想我吧 You miss me
04551 你是我唯一 You are the one and only for me
04592 你是我最爱 You are my beloved
0564335 你无聊时想想我 You think of me when you are bored
0594184 你我就是一辈子 You and me for a lifetime
0654335 你若无事想想我 If you have nothing to do, think of me
08056 你不理我啦 You ignore me now?
08358 你不想我吧 Don’t think of me
08376 你别生气了 Don’t be angry
086 你发了 You made a fortune
0896 你不走了 You are not leaving
095 你找我 You’re looking for me
096 你走了 You are leaving
1299 一来就走 Leave as soon as you arrive
12937 一来就想吃 Thinking of eating as soon as you got here
12945 要爱就是我 I’m the one who wants love
130926 一想你就来啦 Just one thought of you and you arrived
1314921 一生一世就爱你 Love you for a lifetime
1372 一厢情愿 One-sided willingness
1392010 一生就爱你一人 You are the person I’ll love for a lifetime
1573 一往情深 Long-lasting, focused love (Chinese idiom)
1698 一路走吧 Let’s go together
1799 一起走走 Let’s stroll around
20863 爱你到来生 Love you till the next life
234 爱相随 Follow you with love
246 饿死了 Starving to death
246437 爱是如此神奇 Love is so magical
25184 爱我一辈子 Love me for a lifetime
258 爱我吧 Love me
25873 爱我到今生 Love me till death
259695 爱我就了解我 To love me is to know me
3207778 想和你去吹吹风 Want to go out with you
3344 生生世世 For generations
338 想想吧 Let’s think about it a bit
3399 长长久久 For a long time
35925 想我就爱我 To think of me is to love me
360 想念你 Miss you
3726 想起来啦 Thinking of getting up
38726 想不起来啦 I can’t think of it
409 罚你走 Punish you by your leaving
456 是我啦 It’s me
476 死机了 Dead phone
510 我已来 I’m already here
51020 我依然爱你 I still love you
511314 20 我要一生一世 爱你 Love you for a lifetime
51396 我要睡觉了 I want to go to sleep now
51476 我也死机了 My phone is dead too
516 我要溜 I have to go
517 我要吃 I want to eat
5179 我要吃酒 I want to drink wine
5196 我要走喽 I must leave now
520 我爱你 I love you
5201314 我爱你一生一世 I want you for a lifetime
52033 44587 我爱你生生 世世不变心 I love for a lifetime with an unchanging heart
521 我愿意 I’m willing
5240 我爱是你 You are my love
526 我饿啰 I’m hungry
530 我想你 I’m thinking of you
5366 我想聊聊 I want to chat for awhile
53719 我深情依旧 I still have deep love for you
5376 我生气了 I’m upset
53770 我想亲亲你 I’m thinking of kissing you
53880 我想抱抱你 I’m thinking of hugging you
546 我输了 I lost
548 无事吧 Are you OK?
555 呜呜呜 Wu wu wu (sobbing sound)
558 午午安 Good afternoon
564335 无聊时想想我 Think of me when you are bored
5689 我溜不走 I can’t sneak out
57520 吾妻我爱你 My wife, I love you
5776 我出去了 I’m going out now
58 晚安 Good night
5810 我不依你 I won’t listen to you
584520 我发誓我爱你 I swear I love you
586 我不来 I’m not coming
587 我抱歉 I am sorry
5871 我不介意 I don’t mind
52667 我俩遛遛去 Let’s leave slowly
594230 我就是爱想你 I’m thinking of you
596 我走了 I’m leaving
667 遛遛去 Let’s stroll around
6785753 老地方不见不散 Meet at the same old place and don’t leave until we meet
6868 溜吧!溜吧! Sneak out! Sneak out!
70345 请你相信我 Please believe me
71817 请你干要气 Please don’t get upset
721 亲爱的 Dear
7456 气死我啦 Angers me to death
745839 其实我不想走 Actually, I don’t want to leave
748 去死吧 Go to hell
74839 其实不想走 Actually, not thinking of leaving
765 去跳舞 Go dancing
768 吃了吧 Let’s eat
770 亲亲你 Kiss you
770880 亲亲你抱抱你 Kiss you, hug you
775 亲亲我 Kiss me
775885 亲亲我抱抱我 Kiss me, hug me
786 吃饱了 Done eating already
7998 去走走吧 Go for a walk
8006 不理你了 Not paying attention to you anymore
801314 伴你一生一世 Your companion forever
8074 把你气死 Upset you to death
809 保龄球 Bowling
810 不要脸 Shameless
812 不要来 Don’t want to come
8170 不要瞎动 Don’t move recklessly
8172 不要瞎来 Don’t act recklessly
82475 被爱是幸福 Being loved is happiness
825 别爱我 Don’t love me
837 别生气 Don’t be angry
865 别惹我 Don’t annoy me
885 抱抱我 Hug me
886 拜拜了 Bye Bye
898 分手吧 Let’s split
910 就要你 Just want you
918 加油吧 Cheer up
940 就是你 It’s you
9482 就是不来 Just don’t come
98 早安 Good morning
987 对不起 Excuse me
99013 148875 求求你一生 一世别抛弃我 Beg you for a lifetime not to leave me
9958 救救我吧 Save me