泥鳅 (níqiū) · loach, mud fish (Misgurnus anguillicaudatus)

Measure Word

一条泥鳅 tiáo

Meanings

1 loach
2 mud fish (Misgurnus anguillicaudatus)

About the ingredient

水产 Fish and seafood

A small, slippery freshwater fish, usually 10 to 20 cm long, with soft, tender flesh. It is farmed in huge numbers and eaten across East Asia, in China above all in Sichuan.

Contains fish

Characters

Examples

HSK 5

这条泥鳅滑得抓不住。

Zhè tiáo níqiū huá de zhuā buzhù.

This loach is too slippery to hold.

HSK 7-9

小时候他常在稻田里抓泥鳅。

Xiǎoshíhòu tā cháng zài dàotián lǐ zhuā níqiū.

As a kid he often caught loaches in the rice paddies.

Tips

memory

泥 (mud) + 鳅 (loach) = 'mud loach', a fish that burrows into paddy-field mud. Its legendary slipperiness fuels the idiom-like phrase 滑得像泥鳅 ('slippery as a loach') - used for evasive people.