杞人忧天 [杞人憂天] - man of Qǐ fears the sky falling (idiom); groundless fears - Qǐ rén yōu tiān | Definition | ChinesePod.com

杞人忧天 (杞人憂天)

Qǐ rén yōu tiān

Pinyin

Definition

杞人忧天 (杞人憂天)

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Qǐ rén yōu tiān

man of Qǐ fears the sky falling (idiom); groundless fears

Character Decomposition

Related Words (20)

rén

1 man
2 person
3 people
4 classifier: 个 gè
5 classifier: 位 wèi

rén shēng

1 life (one's time on earth)

jīn tiān

1 today
2 at the present
3 now

bié ren

1 other people
2 others
3 other person

tiān

1 day
2 sky
3 heaven

Idioms (20)

一人得道，鸡犬升天

yī rén dé dào , jī quǎn shēng tiān

1 lit. when a man achieves the Dao, his poultry and dogs rise to Heaven (idiom)
2 fig. to ride on sb else's success
3 Once one man gets a government position, all his cronies get in too
4 Once sb has cracked the problem, every Tom, Dick and Harry can do it

一个天南，一个地北

yī ge tiān nán , yī ge dì běi

1 to live miles apart (idiom)

一柱擎天

yī zhù qíng tiān

1 lit. to support the sky as a single pillar (idiom)
2 fig. to take a crucial responsibility upon one's shoulders

一步登天

yī bù dēng tiān

1 reaching heaven in a single bound (idiom); (esp. with negative: don't expect) instant success

一鸣惊人

yī míng jīng rén

1 to amaze the world with a single brilliant feat (idiom); an overnight celebrity

Sample Sentences

你就别杞人忧天了，政府和专家会考虑这些事情的。

nǐ jiù bié qǐrényōutiān le ，zhèngfǔ hé zhuānjiā huì kǎolǜ zhèxiē shìqing de 。

Don't get all worked up for nothing. The government and the experts would have considered things like that.

我觉得这种想法实在是太杞人忧天了。这其实只是一个翻译的问题，不要把“龙”翻译成“Dragon”不就好了。在英语里，也有根据音译，把“龙”翻译成“Loong”的，比如中国的武术家李小龙的名字，翻译成英语就是LeeSiuLoong。

wǒ juéde zhèzhǒng xiǎngfǎ shízài shì tài qǐrényōutiān le 。zhè qíshí zhǐshì yī ge fānyì de wèntí ，bùyào bǎ “lóng ”fānyì chéng “Dragon ”bù jiù hǎo le 。zài yīngyǔ lǐ ，yě yǒu gēnjù yīnyì ，bǎ “lóng ”fānyì chéng “Loong ”de ，bǐrú Zhōngguó de wǔshùjiā Lǐ Xiǎolóng de míngzi ，fānyì chéng yīngyǔ jiùshì LeeSiuLoong 。

I think this kind of fear is groundless. This is really just a translation problem. As long as they don't translate the Chinese term ''long" as ''dragon," isn't that enough? In English, there are also phonetic transliterations. So you could translate ''long" as ''Long," like in the name of the martial arts expert Bruce Lee. His name is often written in English as Lee Siu Long.

我觉得这就是杞人忧天，好好的日子不过，非要弄个耸人听闻的消息来娱乐大众。

wǒ juéde zhè jiùshì qǐrényōutiān ，hǎohāo de rìzi bùguò ，fēiyào nòng gè sǒngréntīngwén de xiāoxi lái yúlè dàzhòng 。

I think these fears are completely unfounded. Everything is fine these days, so people have to go around sensationalizing things in order to entertain the masses.

你就别杞人忧天了。天塌下来还有高个子顶着呢，压不到你。

nǐ jiù bié qǐrényōutiān le 。tiān tā xiàlai hái yǒu gāogèzi dǐng zhe ne ，yābùdào nǐ 。