Chinese word

撒谎

Pronunciation

Pinyinsā huǎng

Meaning

  • verblie

Example

孩子不要撒谎。hái zi bú yào sā huǎng

Children must not lie.

Illustration for 撒谎 (lie)

More examples

为了应付会议，他在同事面前撒谎。wèi le yìng fù huì yì tā zài tóng shì miàn qián sā huǎng

To get through the meeting, he lied in front of his colleagues.

Core concept

Sends a made-up version of events into a conversation to hide what is true.

Common phrases

  • 当面撒谎dāng miàn sā huǎng

    lie to someone's face

  • 当众撒谎dāng zhòng sā huǎng

    lie in public

  • 从不撒谎cóng bù sā huǎng

    never lie

Similar words

说谎shuō huǎng: Saying something aloud that is not true.
骗piàn: Deceiving someone to obtain their money or other property.
编造biān zào: Making up a story or evidence without a real basis.

Definition in Chinese

用虚假的话掩盖真相以欺骗别人。yòng xū jiǎ de huà yǎn gài zhēn xiàng yǐ qī piàn bié rén

Word origin

撒谎 (sāhuǎng, "to lie") is a verb-object compound in which 撒 (sā, "to put forth") acts on 谎 (huǎng, "a lie"), framing the act as putting out a false statement.

Usage tips

  • The verb can stand after a person or pronoun without an English-style object, since the untrue statement is usually understood from the situation.

Opposites

  • 说真话shuō zhēn huàtell the truthverb

Word lists with this word