八九不离十

八九不離十

bājiǔbùlíshí

idiom #35,809

Meanings

Wǒ cāi tā de niánlíng, bā jiǔ bù lí shí.

My guess at his age is pretty close.

Nǐ de dá'àn bā jiǔ bù lí shí.

Your answer is almost right.

Zhè shìr wǒ gūjì de bā jiǔ bù lí shí.

I'd say my estimate of this is pretty much on the money.

memory

Literally 'eight or nine, not far from ten' — you're in the 80-90% range, close enough to 10 (full/perfect) that you've nailed it.

Colloquial. Very common in speech, especially northern dialects. Often used with 猜 (guess) or 估计 (estimate).

八 bā

九 jiǔ

不 bù

离 lí

十 shí