Here's a fun story from our office. In Chinese as everyone knows, we have many different measure words. You must have learned quite a few. However, there is one measure word you may have never been taught:

泡

When you pronounce 4th tone, it is the 泡 like 泡泡中文, meaning bubble or foam. When you pronounce 1st tone, it becomes a measure word for feces or urine. For instance, 我的狗在我的床上拉了一泡屎--Wo3de5 gou3 zai4 wo3de5 chuang2 shang4 la1 le5 yi1 pao1 shi3 (My dog pooed on my bed); 孩子的房间里有一泡尿--Hai2zi5 de5 fang2jian1 li3 you3 yi1 pao1 niao4 (There is pool of urine in the childrens' room).

Thank you to Gail for reminding us of this.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com