刀子嘴豆腐心

Chinese

trad. (刀子嘴豆腐心)		刀子嘴	豆腐心
simp. #(刀子嘴豆腐心)		刀子嘴	豆腐心
Literally: “knife mouth, tofu heart”.

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): dāozi zuǐ dòufu xīn

  (Zhuyin): ㄉㄠ ˙ㄗ ㄗㄨㄟˇ ㄉㄡˋ ˙ㄈㄨ ㄒㄧㄣ

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: dāozi zuǐ dòufu xīn
    • Zhuyin: ㄉㄠ ˙ㄗ ㄗㄨㄟˇ ㄉㄡˋ ˙ㄈㄨ ㄒㄧㄣ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: daozi̊h zuěi dòufů sin
    • Wade–Giles: tao¹-tzŭ⁵ tsui³ tou⁴-fu⁵ hsin¹
    • Yale: dāu-dz dzwěi dòu-fu syīn
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: dau.tzy tzoei dow.fu shin
    • Palladius: даоцзы цзуй доуфу синь (daoczy czuj doufu sinʹ)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /tɑʊ̯⁵⁵ d͡z̥z̩² t͡su̯eɪ̯²¹⁴⁻²¹ toʊ̯⁵¹ fu¹ ɕin⁵⁵/

Idiom

刀子嘴豆腐心

1. someone who has a sharp tongue but a soft heart; someone with more bark than bite

   我們都知道你是個刀子嘴豆腐心。 [MSC, trad.]
   我们都知道你是个刀子嘴豆腐心。 [MSC, simp.]

   Wǒmen dōu zhīdào nǐ shì ge dāozi zuǐ dòufu xīn. [Pinyin]

   We all know that even though you talk tough, you're a softy underneath it all.

Synonyms

Dialectal synonyms of 刀子嘴豆腐心 (“to have a sharp tongue but a soft heart; to be more bark than bite”) [map]

Variety	Location	Words edit
Formal (Written Standard Chinese)		刀子嘴豆腐心, 刀子口豆腐心
Central Plains Mandarin	Wanrong	刀子嘴豆腐心
	Xi'an	刀子嘴豆腐心
	Xuzhou	刀子嘴豆腐心
Cantonese	Hong Kong	口硬心軟
Jin	Xinzhou	豆腐心刀子嘴
Southern Min	Longyan	刀仔喙豆腐心