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Hot, Cold, Warm, Cool
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I'm so thankful I grew up speaking both Mandarin and English. Yes, English can be so weird and has strange grammar, but it's the most widely used language in the world and it would drive me nuts to learn it from scratch. There are many words in English that describe temperature, but the most common ones have other meanings, too. (Like many English terms, they may not seem logical, but if language were logical, it would be more like math and we might as well be computers, right?) Here are a few:
1. Other than the opposite of cold, hot also refers to the taste or sensation of chili peppers, as in some foods being hot and spicy. But it can also refer to something being very trendy, popular, or fashionable, like a clothing style, movie star, or movie (fashionistas will come up with lists of “what's hot and what's not”. Every year they'll pick an IT color and try to sell it to us as the hottest thing. I can't wait for them to say that white is the new black, and see who falls for it). But hot can also mean angry, by the way.
2. If hot means fashionable, then cold ought to mean unfashionable, right? Ha, not so fast, my friends. No, other than cold weather, cold can also describe a very unfriendly tone of voice or behavior. Someone who deliberately ignores you may be giving you the cold shoulder. Some people get hot when they're angry, others get cold.
3. Then does warm mean friendly? Yes, indeedy. Just shows that sometimes English IS logical. Someone who behaves warmly towards you probably likes you, whereas someone who treats you coldly may not.
4. Along the same lines, there is the word cool, which Chinese people pronounce as koor (when an American hears that, I tell you it sounds pretty odd, just like when Westerners pronounce Zheng Jie jeng jee - in addition to using all the wrong tones). Cool can describe tone of voice or behavior that is between hot and cold. But wait, doesn't cool mean very trendy, popular, or fashionable, like a clothing style, movie star, or movie? As in hot? Ha again. Yes, cool and hot can mean the same things. Just to give you something to chew on, get a load of this sentence:
Instead of treating us coldly, the singer said in a warm voice, “It's way cool that you think I'm hot.”
(Opinions of the writer in this blog don't represent those of China Daily.)
Comment Comment (19 comments)
recommend(- Reply Report cecilia颖
- i like this, interesting. i am Chinese, and i also have the problem you mentioned about '"KOOR". so do you have some good idea to help us change the weird accent? i do want to change mine
, thank you very much.
- Reply Report lexalee
- I have my students try two things. #1. To practice in front of a mirror and make sure you stick your tongue out instead of curling it to make the L sound #2. It may help to break the pronunciation into two syllables at first, so you're saying KOOL- LUH. Just to get the idea right.
cecilia颖: i like this, interesting. i am Chinese, and i also have the problem you mentioned about '"KOOR". so do you have some good idea to help us ch ...
- Reply Report cecilia颖
- thank you, i wil try. and for the other pronunciation, when i speak ,i cannot realize the problem. it is really a headache.
lexalee: I have my students try two things. #1. To practice in front of a mirror and make sure you stick your tongue out instead of curling it to make the L so ...
- Reply Report SEARU
- Instead of treating us coldly, the singer said in a warm voice, “It's way cool that you think I'm hot.”
This sentence reminds me the four seasons in a year :
Warm Spring drives away cold Winter;
Cool Autumn follows hot Summer .
- Reply Report 财神
- some contradiction of social words. sometimes it depends on situation too. and all cold and hot' are not suitable in every situation. and another word also for reminding, Cold Blooded also one word that is used for scolding others, yea?
- Reply Report lexalee
- Yes. there are MANY more ways these words are used, including cold-, hot-, and warm-blooded; cold-blooded can refer to animals like reptiles, whose body temperatures depend on the environment. OR people who are unfeeling/cruel. sometimes they and what they do are just called COLD.
财神: some contradiction of social words. sometimes it depends on situation too. and all cold and hot' are not suitable in every situation. and another word ...
- Reply Report Maierwei
- L requires you to put the tip of your tongue closer to your upper teeth. And you hear the L sound when the air is blocked by the body of your tongue.
cecilia颖: thank you, i wil try. and for the other pronunciation, when i speak ,i cannot realize the problem. it is really a headache.
And as lexalee said, for R sound you curve your tongue. So putting the tip of your tongue father, closer to your teeth, NOT curving your tongue and feeling that the body of your tongue makes L happen should help!
- Reply Report Maierwei
- Lexalee, I had that problem with ZHE and JI
And also SHI and XI....
Now I am cool with all, but the ZHE and JI still get me when I talk fast, unless I'm very cautious
By the way, I like the way you wrote this post, because many Chinese people I met think ONLY in Chinese language there are words with multiple meanings. Even after I tell them my native language is not English, they go on explaining me that English is easier for Chinese people to learn but Chinese must be very hard for me because a word can mean many things in Chinese... As if in other languages there are separate words for each concept....
- Reply Report lexalee
- English and other Romance languages have pesky pronouns, prepositions, and verb tenses. American English is very dynamic and constantly evolving, with a great deal of slang, r, l, t, th sounds, and of course, grammatical oddities that are difficult for foreigners. Mandarin does not have many grammatical rules, but Westerners find the tones and zh, sh, ch difficult. They must just be practiced. Multiple meanings of a word must just be remembered. there is nothing like immersion to improve foreign language conversational skills, but grammatical rules, writing, and alphabets are usually learned in school.
- Reply Report teamkrejados
- Dear Lexalee, you forgot phat (pronounced 'fat'). It means Pretty Hot and Tempting. So, if a guy tells a girl she is 'phat', that means he likes her. The joke is that no one wants to be called 'fat'.
In America there is a line of clothing called 'phat farm', no doubt to play on the idea that people in America are overweight, but society is trying to change its views about people who are fat.
- Reply Report lexalee
- well, phat isn't a temperature word. and its heyday was sometime ago, whereas the usual temperature words and their accessory meanings continue to be widely used.
teamkrejados: Dear Lexalee, you forgot phat (pronounced 'fat'). It means Pretty Hot and Tempting. So, if a guy tells a girl she is 'phat', that means he likes her. ...
- Reply Report cecilia颖
- thanks.haha.this morning, i had a quite a long teeth-brushing---- practice it llike you said. i will do it several times more.
Maierwei: L requires you to put the tip of your tongue closer to your upper teeth. And you hear the L sound when the air is blocked by the body of your tongue.
...
- Reply Report Zoggles
- Nice article :)
'Hot' can have so many different meanings (as indeed can warm, cool and cold). Others that you didn't overly mention would include 'sexy' ("Wow, she's so hot!"), or as a feeling of strong desire ("Have you got the hots for her?"), or even for something stolen ("The jewelry is hot, hence the cheap price")
Hot-warm-cool-cold also are sometimes used to indicate proximity or distance from something. The hotter you are, the closer you are.
- Reply Report lexalee
- As Zoggles is pointing out so cleverly, there are still more meanings for these words - we still haven't covered them all.
- Reply Report claudeckenni
- OMG, it's so deep. Hot and cold, is like Yin and Yang, right? We need them to balance is order to have a harmonious healthy life.
- Reply Report xuehailang
- interesting,like Chinese language, sometimes, it also has no logic.So,need us to feel and think the language(not only Chinese and English) with our heart.
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I am a semi-retired American physician and medical/science writer who lives in New Orleans, in the southeastern USA. I spent 2012-2013 teaching at a college in Lianyungang, Jiangsu.
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