结结巴巴

結結巴巴

jiējiēbābā

idiom #31,327

Meanings

1 stammeringly; with a stutter
2 (of speech) halting; broken; not flowing
3 barely making something work; piecing things together with effort

Characters

clinging to; closely tied

Examples

HSK 3

她结结巴巴地把昨晚发生的事说了一遍。

Tā jiējiēbābā de bǎ zuówǎn fāshēng de shì shuō le yí biàn.

She stammered through an account of what happened last night.

HSK 4

他紧张得结结巴巴说不出话。

Tā jǐnzhāng de jiējiēbābā shuō bù chū huà.

He was so nervous he couldn't get the words out.

HSK 4

他的英语结结巴巴的，但能交流。

Tā de Yīngyǔ jiējiēbābā de, dàn néng jiāoliú.

His English is halting, but he can communicate.

Tips

history

Listed as a chengyu, with derivation cited from Lao She's 《骆驼祥子》 (Camel Xiangzi / Rickshaw Boy, 1936): 结结巴巴的，他把昨夜晚的事说了一遍 - 'haltingly, he told over what had happened the night before'. The phrase reduplicates 结巴 'stutter' with the AABB pattern that intensifies adjectives in Chinese.

mistakes

Note 结 here reads jiē (1st tone), not jié - 结巴 'to stammer' has a special reading. For 'tied/knotted' senses, 结 is jié; only the stutter sense uses jiē.

Stroke Order

结 jié

巴 bā