尬gà

Awkward

hǎo gà a.好尬啊。So awkward.

尬 is short for 尴尬, “awkward”. Since 2017 it also starts new words: put it in front of a verb and you get an awkward version of that act, such as 尬聊, forced small talk, or 尬舞, awkward dancing.

Took off: 2017
Started in: Dance videos
Today: Now everyday Chinese

What it means

In standard Chinese, 尬 almost never stood alone; you saw it only in 尴尬. The meme made it a word of its own. 尬聊 is a chat that goes nowhere, 尬唱 is singing that makes the room cringe, and 尬舞 is dancing that does the same.

It also works alone as an adjective: 好尬 is “so awkward”, and 太尬了 is “way too awkward”.

How people use it

尬 and 尬聊 are ordinary online Chinese now. 尬聊 is the most common: a first date, a work dinner, a chat with a relative you see once a year.

里昂

昨天的相亲怎么样？
zuó tiān de xiāng qīn zěn me yàng?
How was yesterday’s blind date?
别提了，尬聊了两个小时
bié tí le, gà liáo le liǎng gè xiǎo shí
Don’t ask. Two hours of awkward small talk.
聊了什么？
liáo le shén me?
What did you talk about?
天气。聊了三次天气
tiān qì. liáo le sān cì tiān qì
The weather. Three times.
好尬！
hǎo gà!
So awkward!

More examples

我们俩不熟，只能尬聊。
wǒ men liǎ bù shú, zhǐ néng gà liáo.
We don’t know each other well, so we could only make forced small talk.
他讲了个笑话，没人笑，太尬了。
tā jiǎng le gè xiào hua, méi rén xiào, tài gà le.
He told a joke and nobody laughed. So awkward.

Where it came from

Before the meme, 尬 was slang in Taiwan for a contest, so 尬舞 meant a dance battle, The Paper explains. When the word reached the mainland, people read 尬 as 尴尬, and 尬舞 became awkward dancing.

Short videos spread it in 2017. Sixth Tone mentions a video of a middle-aged man in Hainan who started to dance when traffic police stopped him, which led to jokes about the “尬舞 uncle”. That December, 咬文嚼字 put 尬 on its list of the ten most popular phrases of 2017, and the national language monitoring center put 尬聊 on its list of internet words of the year.