Cantonese: 幫唔到你，你爆肚啦

[indigoduck]

Hi all,

What does "爆肚" in the sentence "幫唔到你，你爆肚啦" mean and the putonghua equivalent ?

Thanks in advance

 

[Ghabi]

Hello! In entertainment jargon, the expression means "to deliver some lines off-the-cuff", so in your example it's like: "I can't help you. Just wing it!"

 

[sutoo]

爆肚 usually means giving an impromptu speech, presentation or performance without much preparation. On the other hand, 笑爆肚 is equivalent to "laugh to death".
即席演講/即席演出 should be rough equivalents in Mandarin.

 

[SuperXW]

As a Beijing native, I would say: 帮不了你，你现编吧！ ：）
We do has very casual oral language like this.
The following one is even more informal: 帮不了你，你现诹zou1吧！ 诹 means "wing it" too.

 

[Ghabi]

That's excellent, Super! Is 诹 completely different from 诌 zhou1? Can I also say 现诌?

 

[SuperXW]

That's excellent, Super! Is 诹 completely different from 诌 zhou1? Can I also say 现诌?

To be frank, I was not sure about these two characters. Since they are too colloquial, most Chinese can't distinguish them, just like many people can't write those characters in Cantonese and other oral dialects.
But I looked up in dictionary, turned out yours 诌 was the correct one meaning "胡编乱造", while mine 诹 means "一起商讨，咨询" in ancient texts.

 

[Ghabi]

But forget the characters! What concerns us are the words: so you always say xian4zou1, not xian4zhou4, right?

 

[SuperXW]

No! By the dictionary it should be xian4zhou1诌, not xian4zou1诹! You were right, I was wrong!
But anyway, people often pronounce it "wrongly" as zou1. Even my input program recognizes this problem: when I'm typing "hu zou", it cleverly reminds me that the word I want to type is "胡诌 hu zhou".

 

[Ghabi]

If you and all your friends say zou1, then it should be the dictionary that needs to be revised (诌 zhou1-->诌 zou1/zhou1), don't you think? A dictionary should indicate what people actually say, no?

 

[SuperXW]

I know. Actually, just some people say zou and some say zhou. It's not so unified yet.