Reacting in the comments
Open the comments under any Chinese video and the same handful of reactions fill the screen. They look like code, but most are ordinary Chinese used in a new way, or a pun on a sound. Once the logic is pointed out, each one is easy to remember.
Under every video
The reactions you will see first.
Comment slang is short because comments are. Most of it reuses an ordinary word (绝, 家伙) or puns on a sound (666), which is why it is learnable: the logic is right there once you see it.
Typed, and said out loud
Some of it works in speech, some of it only on a screen.
The safest rule: understand everything, say only what you would hear from people your own age. Slang in a learner's mouth can sound like a costume, the same risk as fantasy Chinese.
Under a food video
Four comments, each one a formula.
求地址 is the most useful line here. 求 plus a noun is the standard way to ask a poster for something, and it is polite in a way the word beg is not in English.
A lot of Chinese internet slang starts in game live streams and in 弹幕 dànmù, the comments that scroll across a video as it plays. From there it moves to Douyin and Xiaohongshu, then into speech. The further along that path a word gets, the longer it tends to last.
8 questions. Get 5 right to finish the day.
绝了 is…
- an insult
- high praise: incredible
- a question
- a goodbye
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high praise: incredible 绝, extreme.
Why does 666 mean nice one?
- 六 liù sounds like a word for smooth and skilful
- it is a lucky price
- it is an internet address
- it counts likes
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六 liù sounds like a word for smooth and skilful A sound pun from gaming.
好家伙 expresses…
- agreement
- anger only
- surprise
- sadness
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surprise Good or bad surprise.
Type the pinyin for 离谱.
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lípǔ Off the score: outrageous.
求地址 in a comment means…
- I found the address
- wrong address
- address, please
- no address
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address, please 求 plus a noun asks for it.
Which is safe to say to anyone?
- 太厉害了 tài lìhai le
- 好家伙 hǎo jiāhuo
- 666 liùliùliù
- 绝绝子 juéjuézǐ
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太厉害了 Plain praise that never dates.
绝绝子 today sounds…
- rude
- brand new
- formal
- dated, a joke about slang
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dated, a joke about slang Peak slang around 2021.
Type the Chinese or pinyin for worth it.
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zhíde 值得, and the de is light.
Question 1 of 8