{"id":4544,"date":"2019-11-18T20:41:57","date_gmt":"2019-11-18T20:41:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/chinese-wordsvocabulary\/how-much-you-really-know-about-shang-up-and-xia-down-when-you-learn-chinese\/"},"modified":"2019-11-18T20:41:57","modified_gmt":"2019-11-18T20:41:57","slug":"how-much-you-really-know-about-shang-up-and-xia-down-when-you-learn-chinese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/mm\/how-much-you-really-know-about-shang-up-and-xia-down-when-you-learn-chinese\/","title":{"rendered":"How much you really know about \u201c\u4e0a (up)\u201d and \u201c\u4e0b (down)\u201d when you learn Chinese?"},"content":{"rendered":"
“Up – <\/wbr>\u4e0a shàng<\/strong><\/strong>” and “down –<\/wbr>\u4e0b<\/strong> xià<\/strong>” are two very basic frequently used Chinese characters<\/span> that appear in words, phrases and idioms. If I ask the Chinese learners that just started their learning process and have already learned these two words how difficult it is to learn them, it won’t be surprised to hear that it is actually very simple. <\/p>\n

However, with your language study progresses into higher level, you’ll slowly discovered that even if you know these two characters inside out, you still might find yourself in a situation that have no idea a<\/em>bout what they really mean.<\/p>\n

Today I wanna help you with some of their interesting occurrences and hopefully at the end of the post you’ll be able to boost your vocabulary a little.<\/p>\n

The very first smart way of engaging <\/wbr>\u4e0a<\/strong> and <\/wbr>\u4e0b<\/strong> shows in Chinese idiom “seven ups eight downs” – <\/wbr>\u4e03\u4e0a\u516b\u4e0b q\u012b <\/strong>shàng b\u0101 xià<\/strong><\/strong>, meaning “feeling fidgeting, anxious, nervous “. You can tell your friends<\/span> a<\/em>bout your feelings before your very first interview after graduation<\/span> this way :<\/p>\n

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w\u01d2 j\u01d0nzh\u0101ng dé x\u012bnli q\u012bshàngb\u0101xià de.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/wbr>\u6211<\/wbr>\u7d27\u5f20<\/wbr>\u5f97<\/wbr>\u5fc3\u91cc<\/wbr>\u4e03\u4e0a\u516b\u4e0b<\/wbr>\u7684.<\/strong><\/span> (I was so nervous that my heart beat went wild. \ud83d\ude42 )<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Please be aware, <\/wbr>\u4e03\u4e0a\u516b\u4e0b<\/strong> q\u012bshàngb\u0101xià <\/strong>can o<\/em>nly be used after <\/wbr>\u5fc3 x\u012bn <\/strong>or <\/wbr>\u5fc3\u91cc <\/strong>x\u012bnli<\/strong> .<\/p>\n

Guess the above idiom is not that hard to digest. Now let’s have a look at a Chinese word that used the same co<\/em>ncept to carve out “nervousness “. This time, all you need to think a<\/em>bout is just place <\/wbr>\u4e0a and <\/wbr>\u4e0b on top of “heart – <\/wbr>\u5fc3” itself. Like this:<\/p>\n

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t\u01cen tè<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/wbr>\u5fd0\u5fd1<\/strong><\/span> ( fidgeting )<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It’s almost the same meaning as <\/wbr>\u4e03\u4e0a\u516b\u4e0b<\/strong>, but can be used directly on people:<\/p>\n

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w\u01d2 t\u01centè dì zuò zàinar.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/wbr>\u6211<\/wbr>\u5fd0\u5fd1<\/wbr>\u5730<\/wbr>\u5750<\/wbr>\u5728\u90a3\u513f.<\/strong><\/span>  (I was sitting there fidgeting.)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Now you might think, what if you’re stuck and can not either go up or go down, is there any words for that? Yes! <\/wbr>\u4e0d<\/wbr>\u4e0a<\/wbr>\u4e0d\u4e0b bù shàng bùxià<\/strong>! You can tell people that your current position in the company is kind of dangled somewher in the middle – does not belong to the lower rank staff, nor the upper management<\/span>:<\/p>\n

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w\u01d2 xiànzài de zhíwèi shì bù shàng bùxià de.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/wbr>\u6211<\/wbr>\u73b0\u5728<\/wbr>\u7684<\/wbr>\u804c\u4f4d<\/wbr>\u662f<\/wbr>\u4e0d<\/wbr>\u4e0a<\/wbr>\u4e0d\u4e0b<\/wbr>\u7684.<\/strong><\/span> (My current position is stuck in the middle. )<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Or, simply smashing the two characters together into a new character: <\/wbr>\u5361 k\u01ce<\/strong>! It means ” got stuck ” !! \ud83d\ude42 Could you get it? Don’t you know that Chinese could be very creative sometimes?<\/p>\n

”Howt\u0101 de sh\u01d2u k\u01cezhù le!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/wbr>\u4ed6<\/wbr>\u7684<\/wbr>\u624b<\/wbr>\u5361\u4f4f<\/wbr>\u4e86! (<\/strong><\/span>His hand got stuck!)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Now, let me know whether you know any words or idioms that are using <\/wbr>\u4e0a<\/strong> or <\/wbr>\u4e0b<\/strong> in a fun way…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n