Today’s word is 吃 (chī) which means ‘to eat’. Let’s practice making different words, phrases, and sentences with 吃 (chī).
吃醋 (chī cù) To be jealous
The first word is 吃醋 (chī cù) which means ‘to be jealous’. Let’s look at each character of this word, 吃 means ‘to eat’ and 醋 means ‘vinegar’. So it literally means ‘to eat vinegar’. A way of using it in a sentence is 你是不是吃醋了。 (Nǐ shì búshì chīcùle.) Are you jealous?
吃错药 (chī cuò yào) To act weird
Another word we can create with 吃 (chī) is 吃错药 (chī cuò yào). This means ‘to act weird’. Let’s again look at each character of this word, 吃 means ‘to eat’, 错 means ‘wrong’, and 药 means ‘medicine’. So it literally means ‘to eat the wrong medicine’. A way of using it in a sentence is 你吃错药了吧! (Nǐ chī cuò yàole ba!) You are acting weird!
吃土 (chī tǔ) To be
Finally, we can create the word 吃土 (chī tǔ) which means ‘to be broke'. The 吃 here means ‘to eat’ and 土 means ‘soil’. So it literally means ‘to eat soil’. A way of using it in a sentence is 我今天花了好多钱,这个月要吃土啦!(Wǒ jīntiān huāle hǎoduō qián, zhège yuè yào chī tǔ la!) I spent so much money today, this month I will be broke!