Ever get really worked up over something, only to realize it was all in your head? The chengyu 杯弓蛇影bēigōngshéyǐng – which literally translates to “a snake in a cup” –

Pronunciation : yīdìng Meaning : (adv) certainly HSK : 2 Notes : Also as In natural speech, Chinese uses tone sandhi rules, so because 定 (dìng) is a 4th-tone character,

In this short dialogue, Xiaoli is trying to catch a taxi to the train station, but isn’t sure if she’ll make it on time given all the traffic. Key vocab

Pronunciation : yībān Meaning : (adj) generally HSK : 2 Notes : Also as In actual, natural conversation, Chinese applies tone sandhi (tone change rules). Because 般 (bān) is a