Inspired (and reminded) by the couple Chinese translation questions on here:
I play badminton with a group of Chinese speakers (please don’t derail this thread into one about dialects, Mandarin, etc.) - the best I can say is that they speak Chinese.
And they frequently use a word that sounds like, well, the N-word in English. I can’t describe it any better than that, other than to reinforce that it is a word they use frequently. (I suppose it could be two separate words that are frequently said one after the other, but it sounds like a single word to my ears.)
It’s a little awkward to ask them what that particular word means, so I figured I’d ask on here.
IIRC it’s a common function word - ‘which’ or ‘where’ or some boring word like that. One of those words that slides out of your mind five minutes after you’ve heard it. I’ve gotten my Mandarin-studying daughter to tell me like five times and I keep forgetting what the answer was…
니 (ni) is a slangish pronunciation of 네 (neh); 네 and 너 being the dictionary words for the informal ‘you’ (‘dang shin’ is the polite form you see in phrase books). Also in a politically incorrect joke ‘your thing’ (네것 technically neh-guht but the ‘t’ is nearly silent) is misunderstood that way.
