1.”中国银行（很行)”
“中国银行”means Bank of China. But as ” 银” looks like “很”, “行” is a multi-tone word, in addition to reading “háng”, also “xíng, so it easily makes foreigners confused.

2、”亲爱的姑娘（姑妈)”。
“亲爱的姑娘”means Dear girl, if you speak a single character,”娘”and “妈” both means mother. But when each character is used together with another character，the phrases may have totally different meanings,for example “姑娘”means girl，”姑妈”means aunt.You cannot replace 妈 and 娘 with the other in phrase.

3、“你我都不是东西”。
In order to let his students accurately understand the character“东西”, a Chinese-teaching American professor said “东西” does not merely mean the direction in Chinese, it more often refers to items such as furniture, TV, glasses, each could be called “东西”, but living creatures would not say so – for example, you and I are not “东西”.

4. “方便的时候”
Once several Chinese students invited a foreign Chinese-learning boy to have a dinner，a Chinese student said I need to “方便一下”which means going to the toilet.”方便一下”and “方便的时候”looks like same，but the meaning is different,”方便的时候”means when you are available.

5.“中国农民越来越富（贵）了”
“Chinese farmers is becoming richer.” Many foreign students could not distinguish “富（the rich）” from “贵（expensive）”, so don’t confused when you construct sentences.

6. “哪里哪里”
Saying”哪里”one time meas where but saying”哪里”twice doesn’t means where，it means self-abasement in China,which is often said when someone is praised.

 

Tags: ,