Chinese Language Learning Program
Lesson 149 – Onomatopoeia in Chinese
Hello, everyone. Welcome back. This is Baixue’s Chinese
Language Learning Program. Last time we talked about a Chinese poem. Today, we
will talk about Onomatopoeic words in Chinese.
xiàng shēng cí
象 声 词 (Onomatopoeia)
An Onomatopoeia is a word that imitates the sound of a
thing or an action. For example:
hū hū
呼 呼 (the sound of the
wind)
huā huā
哗 哗 (the sound of the flowing water)
dīng dāng
叮 当 (Ding-dong! jingle ! Clink of metal or porcelain ware)
hā ha
哈 哈 (Ha ha; sound of laugh)
pū tōng
扑 通
(flop; thump; splash. The sound of a big weight falling
onto the ground or into the water.)
Grammatical features and functions:
1. Onomatopoeia is only words that imitate the sound they
denote, they do not really have meanings. So, they can be separated from the
sentence. For example:
hōng lóng lóng, dǎ léi le.
轰 隆 隆， 打 雷 了。(Rumble of thunder.)
pū tōng, bái xuě diào dào shuǐ lǐ le.
扑 通， 白 雪 掉 到 水 里了。
(Splash, Bai Xue falls into the water.)
2. Can be used as an adverbial adjunct.
shuǐ huā huā di liú zhe.
水 哗 哗 地 流 着。(The water keeps flowing.)
lǎo rén hā hā di xiào le.
老 人 哈 哈 地 笑 了。(The old man laughs.)
3. Be used as an attributive.
tā pū tōng yī shēng tiào jìn le shuǐ lǐ.
他 扑 通 一 声 跳 进 了 水 里。
(He jumped into the water with a splash.)
hū hū de běi fēng chuī de rén zhēn
lěng.
呼 呼 的 北 风 吹 的 人 真 冷。
(The Whistling North wind makes people
feel cold.)
4. An Onomatopoeia can be used with numeral
· Usually, when an Onomatopoeia
is used as an adverbial adjunct, the particle “地” is used in the sentence. But when an Onomatopoeia is
used with a numeral, no “地” is
necessary. For example:
běi fēng hū hū di guā zhe.
北 风 呼 呼 地 刮 着。
(The north wind whistles.)
qīng wā pū tōng yī shēng tiào huí shuǐ
zhōng.
青 蛙 扑 通 一 声 跳 回 水 中。
(The frog plopped back into the water.)
· Usually, when an Onomatopoeia
is used as an attribute to a noun, the particle “的” is used in the
sentence. But when an Onomatopoeia is used with a numeral, “的” is generally unnecessary. For example:
tā gē gē de xiào shēng gǎn rǎn le wǒ.
她 咯 咯 的 笑 声 感 染 了 我。
(Her giggles infected me.)
měi tiān zǎo shang, wǒ de shǒu jī jiù
huì “ dí dí dí ”
每 天 早 上， 我 的 手 机 就 会“ 嘀嘀嘀”
sān shēng xiǎng, měi cì dōu xià wǒ yī tiào.
三 声 响, 每 次 都 吓 我 一 跳。
(Every
morning, my phone will "beep beep beep" three
sound
which scares me every time.)
5. Some Onomatopoeia can be reduplicated. For example:
huā lā huā lā
哗 啦 哗 啦 (Walla-Walla;
raining cats)
huā lā lā
哗 啦 啦
dīng dāng dīng dāng
叮 当 叮 当 (ding dong, ding dong; jingle jingle)
dīng dīng dāng dāng
叮 叮 当 当
dīng dīng dāng
叮 叮 当
pīng pīng pāng pāng
乒 乒 乓 乓 (Plink
Plank Plunk)
pīng pīng pāng pāng
乒 乒 乓 乓
Ok, that is all for today.
xiè xiè!
谢 谢 ! (Thanks!)
xià cì jiàn
下 次 见! (See you next time!)
