【Learn Chinese】Chinese Slang Words: Sound like a Native Speaker (Part 2)

When you learn Chinese, you'll come across plenty of Chinese slang – the kind of vocabulary and expressions you’re more likely to hear on the street when talking to real people than in your textbook.
Here are some of the most interesting, the most common and the most useful examples of Chinese spoken and internet slang.

卖萌 màiméng (Be Deliberately Cute)
Here’s an interesting word that means “to deliberately act cute”, usually used to describe a girl acting in this way.
It comes from a Japanese word used to describe affection for a cute character, especially one in manga.

ABC - American Born Chinese
If you hear someone described as “ABC”, it means they are an “American Born Chinese” – or sometimes more generally, a Chinese person born overseas.
Sometimes it is used in a disparaging way to describe Chinese people from the US or other countries who think of themselves as Chinese but who don’t really understand Chinese culture.

啥 shá (What) 什么
This word is a shortened version of 什么 shénme (what) and is analogous to English contractions like “dunno” or “gonna”. For example, you might hear someone say 啥意思？shá yìsi? instead of 什么意思？shénme yìsi? to mean “what do you mean?”

咋 ză (How) 怎么
咋 ză is similar to 啥 shá above, this time used in place of 怎么 zĕnme, meaning “how”.

海归 hăiguī (A Person Who Left China And Came Back With New Experience)
The first character of this word means “sea” and the second means “return”. It’s a play on words since 海龟 hăiguī, which is pronounced in the same way, means “sea turtle”!

灯泡 dēngpào (A Third Person Spoiling A Date)
This word literally means “electric light bulb” but is used as a slang term for an unwelcome third person who is spoiling a couple’s date.

放鸽子 fàng gēzi (To Stand Somebody Up)
It means “to stand somebody up” – literally, the meaning is “put a pigeon”!

癞蛤蟆 làiháma (An Ugly Boy)
A fairly self-explanatory one and an expression that works in English too. Literally, it means “toad”.