# 缠缠绵绵



## TR4A

Could someone translate this for me and write the Chinese characters.

Thanks


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## aaron792

缠绵
lingering，moving，touching
All I can suggest~


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## GamblingCamel

Hello, Aaron.
Those three adjectives seem slightly different to me.
Maybe you could explain a little more.  Thanks.


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## aaron792

I am a Chinese who does not know English well enough. So I am afraid I can't explain_ chan chan mian mian_, a popular adverb used in Chinese especially in situaltion of love between men and women, in exact English.
Some more context I can offer is that: suppose a man is going to leave his lover for a distant place at the next morning. Then the night will be very long and precious for them. They chat, promise, touch, or do anyting else (even argue) just to reflect they don't want the departure. Then this is _chan chan mian mian_, or _chan mian_ for short.


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## avlee

Aaron gives one situation that people use this phrase for.
It often indicates doing intimate behaviors between lovers to show the strongest intention for both sides to stay with each other till the eternity. 
Anyway, it relates mostly with affectionateness between men and women.


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## GamblingCamel

Aaron and Avlee,
You're both highly expressive in English !!

My first ideas: we talked/made love_ into the night_, or we held each other _through the night _-- but they don't convey a poetic sense of "eternity" or "imminent separation".

I'd probably need a whole sentence to describe the emotion: 
"All we have is this one night together." 

I can hear the sentimental music in the background as I write. LOL
I'm going to send this around to some friends in English Only to get their ideas.


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## AngelEyes

It's still not clear to me what exact emotion you're seeking.

A general explanation would be:

A *Lovers'* *Pledge* to one another to join their hearts together for forever.

The pledge is a general term that encompasses all sorts of romantic promises and practices meant to bind two people together for all eternity.

Is it the general term you're looking for or some of the specific acts of showing that love?

*AngelEyes*


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## nichec

GamblingCamel said:


> Aaron and Avlee,
> You're both highly expressive in English !!
> 
> My first ideas: we talked/made love_ into the night_, or we held each other _through the night _-- but they don't convey a poetic sense of "eternity" or "imminent separation".
> 
> I'd probably need a whole sentence to describe the emotion:
> "All we have is this one night together."
> 
> I can hear the sentimental music in the background as I write. LOL
> I'm going to send this around to some friends in English Only to get their ideas.


 
It doesn't have to convey the meaning of "eternity".

To me, it basically means to "make out", and you can do that anytime you want, not only when you are leaving tomorrow morning.

Alright, I am sorry I just killed all the romance.


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## AngelEyes

You're right nichec, I just lost my romantic mood. 

Why, they're doing nothing more than:
Getting it on.
Making whoopie.
Fooling around.
Having a wild time.
Playing touchy/feely


These are the words I'd use.

*AngelEyes*


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## nichec

OKay, let's have some romance 

I believe in some ancient Chinese literature, you can use 缠绵 without having any physical contact, as in 纏綿悱惻, a love story that's 纏綿悱惻 is simply a love story that's passionate, heartbreakingly beautiful.

But I think nowadays we use this term more to mean things like, well, to make out (I really don't want to get into details, that's not what a lady should do )


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## AngelEyes

That's interesting, nichec, because in AE we have distinctly different sets of words we use to describe such opposite feelings of love and sex.

We have frivolous words for frivolous lovemaking and tender, romantic words for deeper loving relationships.

In fact, just by the words we choose to describe what we feel, the listener will know how much that other person means to us.

What you just described above is what we'd call a *Great Love Story*. Or a story about *Eternal* *Love *or a story about *True* *Love.*

But I sure wouldn't use the English words, *touchy*-*feely  *or* getting it on* with somebody to describe this romantic concept.

*AngelEyes*


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## nichec

AngelEyes said:


> That's interesting, nichec, because in AE we have distinctly different sets of words we use to describe such opposite feelings of love and sex.
> 
> We have frivolous words for frivolous lovemaking and tender, romantic words for deeper loving relationships.
> 
> In fact, just by the words we choose to describe what we feel, the listener will know how much that other person means to us.
> 
> What you just described above is what we'd call a *Great Love Story*. Or a story about *Eternal* *Love *or a story about *True* *Love.*
> 
> But I sure wouldn't use the English words, *touchy*-*feely *or* getting it on* with somebody to describe this romantic concept.
> 
> *AngelEyes*


 
Well, as human beings, it's our nature to want to "make out" with people we truly love, right? 

And it's always very dangerous to try and compare two languages, to me, a language is almost like a way to see life and to see the world, with different cultures, the points of view(s) can vary 

But you know me, I can be uttering total nonsense here


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## AngelEyes

nichec,

Not nonsense at all. I thought, though, one of the purposes was to find a similar group of words that would compare with this thread's term.

Maybe I misunderstood? _chan chan mian mian _seems to have started off as being used in deeply moving, much-more-than-sexual stories and has evolved today into a term used for more lightweight romantic activities.

Maybe some others will contribute and remind me we have such words in AE, too, but I can't think of any right now.

And you mentioned _making_ _out_. Yes, deep lovers do that, too, but we wouldn't use that word to describe an intimate encounter that we hold up as something special. 

In Chinese, apparently _chan chan mian mian_ is widely accepted for all instances?

My discussion here is not to criticize our differences.  It's only to think about them and learn from them.

And I'm still trying to think of a comparable term in AE that's both superficial and profound. No one would have a problem differentiating between *making* *out* and sharing *deep*, *romantic* *kisses*. Just using these two, for example, we'd have no problem choosing between them, depending on the strength of the bond shared by the people involved.

I'm wondering. Is _chan chan mian mian_ a broad term that has many subsets of meaning? For instance, *Loveplay* is a general word that has many, many words you can choose to describe what it is. Maybe this is the word I've been looking for! 

*AngelEyes*


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## Flaminius

Hello girls,

I always thought 缠绵 means difficult to break up or never to leave (and being impressing or moving is only a secondary sense).  Is the romantic/physical sense limited to 缠缠绵绵 as opposed to the non-reduplicated form?

Oh well, it might be that I am just reading wrong materials...


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## GamblingCamel

Flaminius, I know very little about Chinese, but poetically, that's beautiful if you can change meaning by repetition of words.


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## nichec

Hmm, I have been thinking *REALLY HARD* about this (and I blame you for that, GamblingCamel )

My silly little brain has somehow come to the conclusion that CONTEXT (again ) plays a very important part when we are trying to interpret this term. For example, if you say the couple 一夜纏綿, everyone would know what you mean: they made love all night long. but in my post #10, in that context, it means the love story between them is heartbreakingly beautiful.

Dear AngelEyes, I wonder if we interpret "make out" in the same way, to me, when you "make out" with someone, it can be very romantic and loving, but of course, you can also just "make out for make out's sake", I guess this term in Chinese means a lot more than, say, to "get laid", it has affectional meaning in it, but really, I don't know how kids these days use this term in Chinese, I am too old for that 

Last but not least, from the very beginning of this thread, I find it amusing to read 缠缠绵绵, because you know, guys, I think I have only heard of 缠绵, two words, but well, you learn something new here everyday


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## samanthalee

This discussion has set me thinking really hard. I've never realised that there is only 1 set of words for love and sex in Chinese while there are 2 sets in English.

I'm speculating that this is because the concept of separating sex from love never occurred to the Chinese mind. The Chinese term for "one night stand" is "one night romance" (一夜情); there is romance in a one night stand? Why not call it "one night sex"?

I agree with nichec that it is not common to see the term 缠缠绵绵。It may occur in lyrics, but usually we use 缠绵.

Flaminius is right to think that 缠绵 means difficult to break or never to leave. 缠绵 means to be linked together for eternity.

However, 缠绵 seem to have taken on the meaning of the sexual act too. If we break the word down to its component characters, 缠 means _entwined_ or _entangled_, while 绵 has various meanings of _linked_, _afar_, _soft or tender_, _flourishing_, _from ancient times_. If we think of the physical bodies and being entwined and linked and tender and flourishing...I think that's about nicely sum up the whole sexual act.


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## AngelEyes

"Making out" of course is used by very close lovers. But we would choose that phrase when wanting to lighten the occasion or add a bit of humor. It's not an all-purpose term for saying something deeper. We might choose words that even step around the kissing part and get more specific. "I spent the night with him and we made love for hours."

We use different words to signal the depth of our experience.

Or sometimes, we just use simpler words like "making out" to keep whatever it is we did together private and personal between us. Tone of voice very often tells the listener whether we were just going at each other like animals  or we were expressing our affections about each with whoever we were talking to, but we don't care to discuss it further. So "making out" could tell the other person just enough facts without really saying much at all.

This may also have something to do with the ages of the people involved. Younger people either are more apt to tell you everything, may use words that are bolder, or they may simply be telling you that they don't value their relationships as much as someone who's more mature about everything.

This illustrates my opinion that we pick up signals from someone that are unspoken just by the word choices the speaker makes. I really can't think of an American word or phrase that has an all-purpose meaning like *chan chan mian mian.*

*AngelEyes*


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## TR4A

Thank you all for your input. It was described to me by a Chinese native as Aaron states. I understood it to be more romantic versus sexual. The duplicate characters I understood as being critical to the meaning. I wanted to confirm that it meant a lovers pledge to each other.


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## stephent74

I read the thread briefly. Here's my opinion.

Firstly, We never say " 缠缠绵绵'' --- at least I never seen it myself. We do say “缠绵”

If you want to know the exact meaning of 缠绵， you have to know its original meaning --- if I come to think of it， I can think of a picture：　a vine twisting around a tree trunk. They stay so close to each other, and it will be hard to separate them. 

It's true that in today's Chinese, we acutally use 缠绵 to talk about 2 people having sex or making out. 

But this is not about if the relationship is serious or not. 缠绵just means they are way into each other. Possibly they have true love, possibly they are just attracted by their partner's hot bodies. --- but , this is not the point. 

The point is: they are having physical contact and they are reluctant to separate. 

If you think English uses two sets of words for different ''love'', and here 缠绵 can be used on so many occasions ---- maybe that's it.


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## nichec

stephent74 said:


> i read the thread briefly. here's my opinion.
> 
> firstly, We never say " 缠缠绵绵'' --- at least I never seen it myself. We do say “缠绵”
> 
> if you want to know the exact meaning of 缠绵， you have to know its original meaning --- if I come to think of it， I can think of a picture：　a vine twisting around a tree trunk. they stay so close to each other, And it will be hard to separate them.
> 
> it's true that in today's chinese, we acutally use 缠绵 to talk about 2 people having sex or making out.
> 
> but this is not about if the relationship is serious or not. 缠绵just means they are way into each other. possibly they have true love, possibly they are just attracted by their partner's hot bodies. --- but , this is not the point.
> 
> The point is: they are having physical contact and they are reluctant to separate.
> 
> if you think English uses two sets of words for different ''love'', and here 缠绵 can be used on so many occasions ---- maybe that's it.


 
Wow, this is a great post 

Do you also think this term has the "hidden meaning" of "eternity"? Many posters mentioned it, but I don't know, I really can't say I think it has anything to do with eternity, very difficult to seperate, yes, but eternity? 

I would really love to know what you think about this, thanks, and hey, welcome to the forums


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## stephent74

Thanks for being nice to me. nichec. 

Eternity?? I would say no. although if you look up the character''绵'' in a dictionary, it does have the meaning of ''stretching continuously" as in 延绵不绝，and 绵长。

But here we talk about 缠绵。not绵。  so I prefer to make it simple. 

ps.: I just did a web-search on 缠缠绵绵. To my surprise it does exist. Perhaps this new phase gives us the meaning of '' eternity"? I am not quite sure now. Anyway, 缠缠绵绵is not colloquial.


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## nichec

stephent74 said:


> thanks for being nice to me. nichec.
> 
> eternity?? i would say no. although if you look up the character''绵'' in a dictionary, it does have the meaning of ''stretching continuously" as in 延绵不绝，and 绵长。
> 
> but here we talk about 缠绵。not绵。 so I prefer to make it simple.
> 
> ps.: i just did a web-search on 缠缠绵绵. to my surprise it does exist. perhaps this new phase gives us the meaning of '' eternity"? I am not quite sure now. anyway, 缠缠绵绵is not colloquial.


 
Thanks again


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## snowyau

My Chinese isn't that great, but I'll hazard an approximation in English. 缠绵 to me invokes certain image: grinding, soft, slow, incessant. To me there's a sense of "yearning" to it.

I think "缠缠绵绵" is not really spoken, it's a more poetic way to give the phrase a lighter meaning, like in Italian, "piano" means "soft", you might say "pianissimo" to extend the meaning of soft to mean "very soft". (缠缠绵绵 = sounds like a little bit of 缠, a little bit of 绵)


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## bibliolept

I guess that "snuggling" and "canoodling" don't quite fit the bill, then, either in terms of intensity or of significance.


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## avlee

Years ago, there's a very popular Chinese song named 'two butterflies'. In the lyrics, 缠缠绵绵 is used. I strongly encourage those who have some skeptisms to have a listen. It can be downloaded and listened online at mp3.baidu.com. 
Again, here we only discuss about our personal understanding/perception toward this phrase. So it's quite acceptable to have as many quotes as possible to support our points of view. Thus, the readers might have a better understanding about the etymology to help them decide how and why they use this phrase. Enjoy the song;-)


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## xiaolijie

avlee said:


> Years ago, there's a very popular Chinese song named 'two butterflies'. In the lyrics, 缠缠绵绵 is used. I strongly encourage those who have some skeptisms to have a listen. It can be downloaded and listened online at mp3.baidu.com.


Help! I can't find either the title 'two butterflies' or '缠缠绵绵' at mp3.baidu.com. It always tries to tell me to go elsewhere. 

(PS: Or do you mean the song "两只蝴蝶" ?)


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## avlee

Yeah, that's 两只蝴蝶 in Chinese, put that into the blank of the searching section on the web I stated above. And with a simple click, you'll probably find it momentarily. Good luck!
PS: I just tried on my desktop and it works!
So enjoy the music! (I thought to post the lyrics in here, but negated 'cause that might break the copyright rule of WordReference.com.)


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