你是开玩笑呢
“Are you joking,”
THE DIALOGUE REEL
你是 开玩笑呢
“Are you joking,”
还是认真的？
“or serious?”
“Don't play dumb with me—are you actually accusing me of being a demon?”
When confronted with dangerous truths in Chinese interactions, speakers often frame their counter-question as disbelief or humor to assess the counterpart's certainty.
LEARNING CHUNKS & PARTICLES
to joke; to kid around
Commonly used to ask whether someone is being serious or to deflect tense situations.
Suspends the sentence in progress, marking the ongoing query and preparing for the second half of an alternative question.
VOCABULARY & EXPRESSIONS
Parallel Spoken Cinema Scenes (语义近邻切片)
“Are you joking?”
“dismissed it as a joke”
“is playing a joke on us?”
“What a joke.”
“It was just a joke.”
“You can't be serious.”