Don’t Let This Happen to You(Part 2)

Don’t Let This Happen to You(Part2)

1. One day, Lily went to her hairdresser and told him that she wanted to “剪半寸(jiǎn bàn cùn),” or “cut off half a 寸 (a traditional unit of length equal to approx. 3.3 cm).” She sat down and he went to work. Before long, Lily had fallen asleep. Awakened by her hairdresser tapping her on the shoulder, she looked in the mirror to see her new haircut, but something very wrong - there was only “半寸” left!

What happened here? As is mentioned above，“半寸 (bàn cùn)” means “half a 寸.” However, Lily accidentally pronounced “半” in the third tone, so that what she actually said was “板寸 (bǎn cùn),” or “crew cut.”

2. One day in Chinese class, Jason and his classmates were taking turning giving the synonym of each word their teacher said. When it was his turn, Jason wanted to say “打算 (dǎsuàn),” or “to plan (to do something),” but when the teacher wrote it on the blackboard, she wrote “大蒜 (dàsuàn),” or “garlic,” And he knew he had made a mistake. He couldn’t help but notice the snickers from his classmates.

3. Charlie had just ordered a few dishes at his favorite restaurant. “Anything else I get for you?” the waiter asked.

“Oh, can I also have a bowl of蜜蜂 (mìfēnɡ; bees)?” he asked.

“蜜蜂?!?” the waiter said, shocked. “Sorry, we don’t have any.”

Can you guess what Charlie meant to say? What came out a “蜜蜂” actually should have been “米饭 (mǐfàn),” or “rice.” In this case, not only should we pay special attention to the tones of these words, but also to difference between the front nasal final -n[-n] and the back nasal final -ng[-ŋ].