Chinglish Dictionary

Steamed bun

包子 / 馒头

Chinese steamed bread/dumpling with or without filling

Stinky tofu

臭豆腐

Fermented tofu with strong odor but delicious taste

Our team has to cooperate.

我们团队必须合作

A standard English expression emphasizing the necessity of teamwork and collaboration for a team; the original Chinglish...

Spicy crawfish

麻辣小龙虾

A popular Chinese late-night snack with crawfish stir-fried with chili, Sichuan peppercorns, garlic and spices, numbing-...

Red bean bun

豆沙包

A Chinese steamed bun with sweet red bean paste filling, soft and fluffy dough, sweet and delicate filling, a classic br...

Chicken soup noodle

鸡汤面

A Chinese light noodle dish with boiled noodles in fresh chicken soup, topped with chicken slices and green onions, fres...

Deep fried milk

炸牛奶

A Cantonese sweet snack made by solidifying milk with starch, cutting into strips, coating with batter and deep-frying, ...

Three people become tiger

三人成虎

Rumors repeated by many people become accepted as fact

Thousand layer pancake

千层饼

A Chinese flaky baked pancake made by layered dough, baked until golden and crispy, with multi-layer texture and salty f...

Where are you dead at?

你死哪去了？

Where have you been? (aggressive tone expressing worry or anger)

No door!

没门！

No way! Absolutely not! (literally: no door to enter)

Glutinous rice ball

汤圆

A traditional Chinese festival food made of glutinous rice flour wrapper with sweet fillings like sesame, peanut, red be...

Meet up

碰面；相聚

Concise and colloquial English phrasal verb, used to arrange face-to-face meeting, gathering and appointment with friend...

We need to unify our thoughts

我们需要统一思想

Standard management and team building English expression, used to require team members to unify cognition, goals and wor...

You ask me, I ask who?

你问我，我问谁？

Rhetorical response meaning "How should I know?" or "Don't ask me"

Heart flower angry open

心花怒放

To be extremely happy and excited; elated

Stand talk smile no drink

站着说话不腰疼

To make thoughtless comments without understanding the difficulty of a situation

Teach fish how to swim

班门弄斧 / 教鱼游泳

To teach someone something they already know well; to show off in front of an expert

Pass the buck

推卸责任

Authentic English business idiom, referring to the behavior of shifting one's own fault, duty and work pressure to other...

Play house

过家家

Children pretending to be adults in a family setting; also used for immature relationships