#chinablr

突 = to dash or move forward quickly; abruptly; suddenly; unexpectedly, protrude

It's all about things moving forward and unexpectedly with this one!

Random words that come to mind include unexpectedly or out of the blue 突然 (tūrán), as well as conflict 冲突 (chōngtū) or 突出 (tūchū), something that is prominent or that sticks out.

突发 (tū fā) is interesting as well — it means to break out or appear unexpectedly... like 疾病突发 (jí bìng tū fā), the outbreak of an illness.

九 = jiǔ = nine

A gorgeous neon 九 from a restaurant in Taipei!

There's not much to say about the character... 9 is 9. But we can take a detour here to talk about discounts in Chinese, which work the opposite way than the western world and are thus a bit confusing at first: instead of telling you how much the discount is, they tell you how much percentage of the original price you have to pay.

So for instance, if something has a 10% discount, you'd say 九折 (jiǔ zhé), as in, you only paying 90% of the price. The lower the number before the 折 character, the higher the discount. Takes a bit of time to get used to!

There are a few expressions that say "most likely" using 9, like 十之八九 (shí zhī bā jiǔ) or 十有八九 (shí yǒu bā jiǔ). Both of these hint at something happening 8 or 9 times out of 10, so it's quite likely it'll happen.

来 = lái = to come, to arrive

Everyone knows this one, right? It's one of the first verbs you'll learn when studying Chinese. Such a simple verb, in such a pleasingly symmetrical character!  

The main meaning is of course to come, or to arrive somewhere.  You can say "She arrived" (她来了, Tā láile) or ask "When is he coming?" (他什么时候来, Tā shénme shíhòu lái).

As a component though, 来 is part of numerous words that indicate origin or time. 将来 (jiāng lái) is the future, 回来 (huí lái) is to come back, 后来 (hòu lái) is afterwards or later.

You'll often hear the phrase 来得及 (lái de jí) when someone says there's still time, or the opposite,  来不及 (lái bu jí) when there's not enough time left. Check out a more complete list on Ninchanese.

丽 = lì = beautiful

Sooo many words for describing beauty use the 丽 character, and the first one you’ll read about is likely to be 美丽 (měi lì), or beautiful. You’re also likely to hear 华丽 (huá lì) or 绚丽 (xuàn lì) for gorgeous, 瑰丽 (guī lì) for magnificent, 秀丽 (xiù lì) for pretty... you get the idea.

金 = jīn = gold, money, highly respected

300-something words featuring 金, and they’re all shiny and precious! ✨ The first meaning of the caracter is gold, and it’s also associated with terms that are related with money, like finance 金融 (jīn róng), the rent 租金 (zū jīn), a ransom 赎金 (shú jīn) or simply cash 现金 (xiàn jīn). Naturally, it’s also featured in the name of a lot of animals, plants or anything that is golden. 金鱼 (jīn yú) refers to a goldfish, 金橘 (jīn jú) is a kumquat (aka, a golden tangerine), and 金毛狗 (jīn máo gǒu) is a type of dog with golden fur... can you guess?

As for expressions, how about this one, with a very straightforward meaning: 情比金坚 (qíng bǐ jīn jiān), ie, love is more solid than gold.

肉 = ròu = meat, flesh

右 = yòu = right, right-wing politics

This one is pretty straightforward: 右 is the physical right side of things. 右手(yòu shǒu) is your right hand, 右边 (yòu bian) of something is the right side of it, and 右箭头 (yòu jiàn tóu) is an arrow that points to the right.

左右 (zuǒ yòu) is literally left-right, and it means “more or less”. So for instance, if you want to tell your friend you’ll come over around 10, you can say 我十点左右来 (wǒ shí diǎn zuǒyòu lái). On the political side, 右派 (yòu pài) is the right-wing party, and 极右翼 (jí yòu yì) would be the extreme right. 

艺 = yì = skill, art 

So there’s two sides to this character — skills and arts — but they’re somewhat similar related.

艺术 (yì shù) is art itself, so 艺人 (yì rén) is a performing artist, 艺术品 (yì shù pǐn) is a work of art and 艺术节 (yì shù jié) is an arts festival. When you move over to the skills, you get words like 厨艺 (chú yì) cooking skills, or 园艺 (yuán yì) gardening... but in truth, aren’t those a kind of art too?