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J.P.'s avatar

Dude do more funny skits! That was great! 🤣

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J.P.'s avatar

Yup, 那个 (nèige; pronounced neigh-gur or ni-gur), one of Mandarin Chinese's most common words. Literally means "that one/thing/thingee/thingamajigger" but can be used as a conversational gapfiller akin to English "Umm", which is why you hear it all the time on Chinese-speaker's lips!

Some regions/dialects pronounce it as nàge (nah-gur), particularly in the south, but at some point there was a definitive vowel change in the northern dialects because 那个 nàge ("that one") is very similar to 哪个 nǎge (naah-gur, "which one?").

Thus the offensive-to-American-ears "nèige" came to dominate every sentence of Mandarin Chinese!

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Beedledee Beedledum's avatar

LOL! So what does that word really mean? Explained below -

I liked your skit a lot. Educational and fun

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