7 Chinese Slang You Probably Haven’t Heard Yet

We’re pretty familiar with English slang, like “legit,” “lit,” “RIP,” etc. We even know Tagalog slang words like “petiks,” “charot,” “waley,” and “chibog.” But are you familiar with Chinese slang?

I started looking into this, thinking I’d find things like “ke-po,” “hao-xiao,” “tao-ke” and other words we hear often, but I came across a very interesting genre of Chinese slang where they use numbers to replace words. Remember when 143 was used to say “I love you”? Well, the Chinese just took it to a whole another level.

Here are some Chinese slang to get you started:

520 (wuerling) – It means “I love you” because I guess it sounds like “wo ai ni“? Have you told your parents 520 today?

666 (liuliuliu) – I initially thought it would have something to do with demons, but no. It means “awesome” or “excellent.” I guess demons can be 666, but I don’t know about excellent.

748 (qisiba) – See, now this means “go to hell.” The demons can 748.

484 (sibasi) – “shi bu shi” translates to “yes or no.” Tell me, are you enjoying these so far? 484?

233 (ersansan) – Laugh out loud. I am 233-ing over how I do not understand this one.

995 (jiujiuwu) – Please someone 995, my brain was not made for number slang. If you didn’t get it, 995 means “help me” like jiu jiu wo.

88 (baba) – This is the last one. Wanna take a guess? It means “bye bye”! So the Chinese version of the boy band N*Sync’s hit song was 888. Get it? No? Okay. 88!

Now that you know some Chinese slang, how about having your own secret language on social media? Check out this article.