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Set phrases & idioms 100
100
phrases
Everyday life
10
家常便饭 - "home-cooked everyday meal" - means something so routine it hardly counts as an event, and is used far beyond food. 凑合 and 将就 both mean making do, and the pair is worth learning together because Chinese daily life leans on them constantly.
At work
10
挑大梁 - to carry the main roof beam - means taking the leading role, and 打下手 - to work the lower hand - means assisting. 一把手 is the top person in an organisation, literally "first hand", and it is the word Chinese workplaces actually use.
Money
10
羊毛出在羊身上 - "the wool comes off the sheep's own body" - means whoever seems to be paying, the cost comes back to you, and it is the sharpest thing in this set. 一分钱一分货 - a penny, a penny's worth - is its optimistic cousin.
Sizing someone up
10
老好人 - the perpetual nice person - is not entirely a compliment: it describes someone who never offends anyone and therefore never takes a side. 眼高手低 - eye high, hand low - describes taste that outruns ability, and it is unkind and accurate.
Effort and endurance
10
硬着头皮 - to stiffen one's scalp - means pushing through something you dread, and it is more physical than English manages. 慢工出细活 - slow work produces fine work - is the counterweight to 加把劲 and both are true depending on the task.
Luck and timing
10
说曹操曹操到 - speak of Cao Cao and Cao Cao arrives - is the Chinese "speak of the devil", and Cao Cao is the Three Kingdoms warlord famous for turning up fast. 尽人事听天命 - do what a person can, then listen to heaven's will - is the whole philosophy in five characters.
Trouble between people
10
大事化小 - turn a big matter into a small one - is half of a longer saying whose second half is 小事化了, make the small matter vanish, and together they describe the default Chinese approach to conflict. 撕破脸 - to tear the face open - is what happens when that fails.
Ways of speaking
10
话里有话 - there are words inside the words - names the thing the whole 婉曲 category was built around. 打圆场 - to make the circle whole - is smoothing a situation over for other people, a social skill Chinese names directly and English does not.
How people get on
10
走后门 - to go through the back door - means getting something through connections rather than the proper channel, and it is critical, not neutral. 交浅言深 - shallow acquaintance, deep words - names the mistake of confiding too early, which is a genuinely useful warning.
Time passing
10
一转眼 - in the turn of an eye - is the everyday version and 转眼就到 puts it to work: it'll be here before you know it. 来日方长 - the days to come are long - is the gentle closing that says there is no need to rush, and it makes a good last phrase for this category.
Related categories
Softening & hinting 100
Conversation flow 100
Four-character idioms 100
Telling a story 100
Arguing a case 100
Grumbling 100
Joking and irony 100
Formal occasions 100
中文