It’s the Chinese there/their/they’re, but even worse. There’s also 地

Posting neat Chinese phrases whenever I feel like #37

{因|yīn}{果|guǒ}

Literally: “cause + effect”

Figuratively: “karma; cause and effect”

We’re back! Again! Finally our fans get a follow up to a previous cliffanger post from the stone age.

In my experience Buddhist phrases are usually just transliterated into Chinese, but this word got its own calque, which doesn’t even seem like it’s based literally on the Sanskrit ˈkɐɾ.mɐn̪ “act”, instead loosely based on the religious meaning.

So if {果|guǒ} meant “fruit”, surely {因|yīn} means “seed” or something like that? No, why would it? Originally it meant “underwear”, then drifting to “rely on” and “cause” and “inherit”. A far-fetched one, for sure.

@ProletarianDictator@hexbear.net

*得

Posting neat Chinese phrases whenever I feel like #36

{马|mǎ}{上|shàng}

Literally: “on horseback”

Figuratively: “right away; soon”

@ProletarianDictator@hexbear.net

you could also just use the player hotkeys to cycle through subtitles and secondary subs

felt lazy, might post details later

Yeah I should have explained it a little more in depth, haha. It’s hard to reduce these words to simple translations. All parts are weird enough on their own.

{如|rú} means “follow” more in the sense of “follow orders”, go along, comply, accord, be like, as if, etc. {果|guǒ} means fruit in a very broad sense as the “effect” of a tree or seed, think like “bear fruit”, “fruitless”, “the fruits of one’s labor”, etc. So in combination they mean, what happens if the results of a situation are according to some description.

The other variant I think is a bit simpler. {要|yào} means “ask for”, “demand”, “request”, “want”, “need”, “must”, sort of the inverse of the above {如|rú} here. So a hypothetical demands that a situation {是|shì} be a certain way. It places a restriction on the possible outcomes.

Sorry if this is nonsense, I might post other compounds with {果|guǒ} and delve deeper ... whenever I feel like™ 😎

Posting neat Chinese phrases whenever I feel like #35

{如|rú}{果|guǒ} / {要|yào}{是|shì}

Literally: “follow fruit / need be”

Figuratively: “if”

@ProletarianDictator@hexbear.net

Posting neat Chinese phrases whenever I feel like #34

{粉|fěn}{笔|bǐ}

Literally: “powder pen”

Figuratively: “chalk”

@ProletarianDictator@hexbear.net

Don’t thank me, thank our gigachad devs

I have a confession to make. I am actually {~~based~~|~~cringe~~} {cringe|based}.

Posting neat Chinese phrases whenever I feel like #33

{忐|tǎn}{忑|tè}

Remember {上|shàng} and {下|xià} (up and down)? If your {心|xīn} (heart) was going up and down, how would you feel? Perhaps perturbed, fidgety, upset, on edge, uneasy, nervous?

This is a 2-syllable word where neither {忐|tǎn} nor {忑|tè} make sense on their own, they are strictly parts of this word. I’m also 99% sure that the characters were invented specifically for this word.

@ProletarianDictator@hexbear.net