It's one of the most common misconceptions even advanced students have about Chinese: the belief that erhuaization is non-standard and that anyone who says 这儿 (zhèr) instead of 这 (zhè) is somehow speaking the "Beijing dialect". While this opinion rarely survives a run-in with the actual Beijing dialect, it's understandably persistent among people who have not traveled broadly in China. And it's hardly their fault: there are a ton of native speakers who don't know the difference either.

So while we usually put our focus on standard mandarin in our Chinese podcasts, in today's Chinese lesson we take a step back and showcase some examples of more unorthodox erhuaization. These are all commonly used variants you'll start hearing once you're aware of them. And while you might not want to use them yourselves each day, they're good to know - excellent little language bombs you can drop the next time you're at a state banquet and someone asks you how your Chinese is coming along.
 said on
March 16, 2011
"So while we usually put our focus on standard mandarin in our Chinese podcasts, in today's Chinese lesson we take a step back and showcase some examples of more unorthodox erhuaization"

Cheers, this extra-curricular stuff is still tons of fun.
 said on
March 17, 2011
very cool :)
 said on
March 19, 2011
My first trip to China involved an unfortuntate but hilarious mixup at the hotel desk involving a 错的声调 when asking to 借一枝笔.

I have since decided to bring along my own writing implements.
 said on
March 19, 2011
@rizzo,

Oh, I hope you didn't make 笔 first tone ...

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
March 19, 2011
@rizzo,

lolol. My worst moment came trying to buy the film 草房子 shortly after arrival. The lady behind the counter got confused, then started insisting she didn't have it. Telling her the film starred a bunch of kids didn't clear things up.
 said on
April 13, 2011
This is so awesome. My tutor taught me about the days of the week, and I have heard it in daily speech a lot. This erhua stuff is so awesome, I hope you do more of it.

I'm compiling a huge collection of words that I commonly hear with erhua like 时候儿,方面儿,手套儿. Really, I would love to have more on this stuff. Keep it coming. 儿化万岁!
 said on
February 21, 2018
I liked the non-standard Chinese lesson, myself. 真地道的!
 said on
August 28, 2019
在绥化,黑龙江。 我想 `pump up my bike tire' 人说 ·打气儿 吗? 打气= 打气儿。

 said on
August 28, 2019
I asked one of my students, who was from Henan,and had trouble herself with dongbeihua, what the rules were for erhuaization.

She said there weren't any. hahaha.
 said on
August 28, 2019
鞋带=鞋带儿,

袋子 =袋儿。

Now I am in the south in Jiangsu. Not once have I heard 袋儿。 Likewise in dongbei, not once did i hear 袋子
 said on
September 19, 2019
> She said there weren't any.

Ha ha.