Chinese Slang (on the internet)

[linguaholic]

Slang in the Chinese language

Young people (not only) use a lot of slang these days. This also holds true for Chinese.

For instance, people like to write (say) 好滴 instead of 好的。 Another example would be that young people like to write (say) 神马 instead of 什么。 There must be tons of other examples. If you are a native speaker of Chinese, I am sure you will be able to add to the list! Would be glad to get to know some more!

[Daimashin]

I'm embarrased to say but over all the years of using Chinese, I've never actually seen or heard those slangs you mentioned. I must be really outdated because I insist on using proper language whenever I write or type.

[linguaholic]

I'm embarrased to say but over all the years of using Chinese, I've never actually seen or heard those slangs you mentioned. I must be really outdated because I insist on using proper language whenever I write or type.

Oh really? That's interesting. I guess it really depends on where and how you are spending your time online  :grin: Are there other usages of slang that you know of? If any, please let us know  :santa:

[Miya]

I've also never heard of the ones mentioned above.

But I'm a Cantonese speaker and here are a few HK slangs/substitution words I know:

• Chok樣 = refers to those that always try to look hot/sexy when posing for pictures/cameras. The original word for "Chok" is 剒 (cok). This character is not used in Mandarin. It means "to be stuck", like something can't go up or down.
  
• 佢D = 他／她的. "佢" is gender neutral, D is substitute for 的
  
• 886 = In Cantonese, these numbers are pronounced similar to "Bye bye la"
  
• 黐线 = Literal translation is "sticky line" but the meaning is "crazy". Used as a substitute for "瘋狂".
  
• 菲士 = Pronounced "Fēi shì" means "face". Same as "面子" (Miànzi).
  
• 仔 = Pronounced Zǐ in Mandarin, literally means "boy/son", but in the recent years have changed so that it could also refer to girls or objects. So a girl name Mary might be referred to as Mary仔. A computer would be referred to as "電腦仔" (Diànnǎozǐ). Young children also start learning their speech by attaching 仔 to the end of their words.
  

There's definitely a lot more but that's all I can think of for now. Maybe I'll add in some later

[Daimashin]

I've also never heard of the ones mentioned above.

But I'm a Cantonese speaker and here are a few HK slangs/substitution words I know:

• Chok樣 = refers to those that always try to look hot/sexy when posing for pictures/cameras. The original word for "Chok" is 剒 (cok). This character is not used in Mandarin. It means "to be stuck", like something can't go up or down.
  
• 佢D = 他／她的. "佢" is gender neutral, D is substitute for 的
  
• 886 = In Cantonese, these numbers are pronounced similar to "Bye bye la"
  
• 黐线 = Literal translation is "sticky line" but the meaning is "crazy". Used as a substitute for "瘋狂".
  
• 菲士 = Pronounced "Fēi shì" means "face". Same as "面子" (Miànzi).
  
• 仔 = Pronounced Zǐ in Mandarin, literally means "boy/son", but in the recent years have changed so that it could also refer to girls or objects. So a girl name Mary might be referred to as Mary仔. A computer would be referred to as "電腦仔" (Diànnǎozǐ). Young children also start learning their speech by attaching 仔 to the end of their words.
  

There's definitely a lot more but that's all I can think of for now. Maybe I'll add in some later

These are the more common ones used right now among the youngsters. I can say that HK influenced Cantonese speakers around the world a lot in terms of slangs with their mass media.

[pandandesign]

I have not heard of saying "神马", which I thought it means special horse or something. I don't really know that many Chinese slangs and would learn them because I like to learn the proper way of Chinese language. I would say it depends the region and providence, which people use slangs differently from city to city.

[Daimashin]

Here are a few I could think of:

"潮" - hip or trendy

"中女"- middle aged ladies

"剩女" - women that can't find a partner

[Miya]

Haha, I'm currently watching a drama about 剩女. Quite interesting actually

There's also:

宅男 / 宅女 - literal translation "house boy/house girl". Real meaning means hikikomoris / otakus.

[hitthesun]

both of the two are cyber terms, only used among young people, especially students.

In addition,

屌爆了, shocking, super awesome, kind of indecent to say.

灰常 = 非常, very

给力, similar to 屌爆了

屌丝, means the opposite of the next term.

高富帅, split the term character by character to figure out the meaning.

土豪, originally, this is to say people who are rich and not well educated, usually those who become rich very suddenly. now we just use it on people who are rich.

女汉子, manly girl