尊嘟假嘟
Really or not?
尊嘟假嘟？For real?
尊嘟假嘟 is baby talk for 真的假的, “really? for real?”. People write it, often with the little face O.o, when they are surprised or do not quite believe something.
- Took off
- 2023
- Started in
- Xiaohongshu
- Today
- Fading
What it means
The point is the sound. Said in a lazy, cutesy voice, zhēn de jiǎ de turns into something like zūn dū jiǎ dū, and the four characters spell that out. On their own they mean nothing.
It is for chatting with friends, and it sounds very sweet, which is why some people love it and others cannot stand it.
How people use it
It peaked in 2023 and sounds dated to many people now, though friends still use it as a joke. 真的假的 is the normal phrase.
我驾照考过了！
I passed my driving test!尊嘟假嘟？你不是考了三次吗？
For real? Didn’t you take it three times?第四次终于过了
Fourth time, I finally passed.恭喜恭喜！
Congrats!
More examples
你中奖了？尊嘟假嘟？
You won a prize? For real?
明天放假？尊嘟假嘟！
We have tomorrow off? No way!
Where it came from
It spread in August and September 2023, mostly on Xiaohongshu, where Shenzhen News counted about 520,000 notes with the phrase by early September. The paper credits a blogger who posted as a Bernese mountain dog, and reports that someone had already registered the phrase as a trademark.
The editor of 咬文嚼字 said the magazine was watching 尊嘟假嘟 that year, but it left the phrase off the 2023 list.
Related memes
Sources
- Shenzhen News, September 2023 (in Chinese) (sznews.com)
- People’s Daily app on the 2023 list (in Chinese) (peopleapp.com)
Checked November 2026. The picture at the top is our own drawing of 灯灯. The original meme image belongs to its owner and is shown to explain the meme. To ask us to remove it, write to legal@dengdeng.app.
Ten Chinese memes
One Chinese internet meme every three days for a month: where it came from, what it means and how to use it.
