酸甜苦辣
- Literal
- sour, sweet, bitter and spicy
- Figurative
- The ups and downs, all the joys and hardships of life or of one stage of it, such as a job or years spent abroad.
Where does 酸甜苦辣 come from?
It does not come from a specific anecdote; it is a list of four flavors. 酸 is "sour," 甜 "sweet," 苦 "bitter" and 辣 "spicy," and together they move from the kitchen to life: they sum up everything one gets a taste of, pleasant and unpleasant. It does not match the classical list of the five flavors (酸、苦、甘、辛、咸); it is an everyday enumeration. It usually works as a noun, often with 的 in front (人生的酸甜苦辣, 创业的酸甜苦辣), and tends to carry a tone of lived experience rather than complaint.
How is 酸甜苦辣 used? Two examples
- 出国留学这几年，酸甜苦辣我都尝过了。
In these years studying abroad, I've tasted it all, the sweet and the bitter.
- 开店的酸甜苦辣，只有自己最清楚。
Only someone who runs a shop truly knows its highs and lows.
In Wanyu, all 400 chengyu have audio on every sentence, and you can save them to your decks and review them with spaced repetition. Free.
