<p>Here are <a href="http://bbs.tianya.cn/post-333-208789-1.shtml" rel="noreferrer">some more examples</a> of this style of adjective:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>好吃 = 不错吃</p>
<p>好玩 = 不错玩</p>
<p>好用 = 不错用</p>
<p>好喝 = 不错喝</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These terms are extremely common in Taiwanese Mandarin, however their origins are unclear. I suspect it's due to a mix of Taiwanese terms and errors in translation.</p>
<p>Let's take one example, the 不錯吃 phrase. At first glance it seems to be an incorrect use of Mandarin grammar; if you want to use those characters correctly you'd get 吃起來不錯. Otherwise what you'd normally use would be 好吃.</p>
<p>However, there are a few sources that say that the origin of the phrase may have come from the Taiwanese (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Min_Chinese" rel="noreferrer">Min</a>, not Mandarin) phrase <a href="http://blog.udn.com/boyamboy/6709234" rel="noreferrer">未歹食</a> or <a href="http://blog.udn.com/glwang/7312408" rel="noreferrer">袂歹食</a>. 歹 means &quot;bad&quot; so if you negate it using 未 or 袂 it becomes &quot;not bad&quot;. A naive calque may yield the phrase &quot;不難吃&quot;, but that doesn't mean the same thing - it means &quot;this doesn't taste bad&quot;, which is not the same as &quot;this tastes good&quot;. When you negate adjectives, sometimes they become the opposite, but sometimes they become neutral, and it varies from phrase to phrase.</p>
<p>In order to overcome this inconsistency, people may have used
不錯 instead, which does mean &quot;good&quot;. In other words, the transition is:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>未歹食 -&gt; 不難吃 -&gt; 不錯吃</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So you end up with this phrase which seems like bad grammar from a Mandarin perspective, and bad calquing from a Taiwanese perspective. But it's also very commonly used and is here to stay, so just deal with it! :)</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-09-30T08:04:40.913Z
+1 for the interesting source pointing out it may come from Min.
Stan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-09-30T16:49:53.693Z
Great answer. It's not "transliteration" though; it's [calquing](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calque)--i.e., morpheme-by-morpheme translation--from Min to Mandarin. Transliteration would be trying to use characters to imitate the sound of the original Min.
Stumpy Joe Pete
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-10-02T16:27:21.893Z
Interesting! My Taiwanese friend suggests that he only use 不错用, but 不错吃, 不错喝 and 不错玩 are weird.
George
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-09-30T03:40:09.430Z
2013-09-30T23:33:55.643Z
2020-06-17T09:50:11.587Z
congusbongus
<p>I heard my Taiwanese friends use the Mandarin phrase <code>不错用</code> more than once, but didn't have a chance to ask them:</p>

<ul>
<li>Is it widely used in Taiwan, or is it used by a certain circle/type of person? </li>
<li>What's the origin of the phrase, is it from a famous person or TV commercial?</li>
<li>Are there any other phrases in the same pattern? E.g. do people say '不行去'?</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-09-28T02:23:59.483Z
What is the context when this phrase was spoken? Are you sure it is 不错用 or something that sounds like it, but in Taiwanese?
杨以轩
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-09-28T03:22:27.650Z
Are you sure it's not `不错哟`.
Stan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-09-28T03:49:15.390Z
@QuestionOverflow I am sure it's 不错用 and it means 用起来不错. I am not sure how popular it is and who uses it. Searching google.com.tw and you'll see many hits. https://www.google.com.tw/#q=%E4%B8%8D%E9%94%99%E7%94%A8
NS.X.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-09-28T03:50:02.220Z
@Stan Check out my comment above.
NS.X.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-09-28T07:09:51.627Z
Suspect that it's from the Southern Min dialect... 不行去 in my hometown dialect (Eastern Min dialect, which is not mutually intelligible with Southern Min dialect but shares a lot of common features) means `cannot go at the moment (because I'm occupied with other matters)'. In any case, this should not be considered as standard Mandarin however widely it is used in a region
user58955
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-09-28T07:19:53.980Z
I have a question about the word `Taiwanese' though. Looks like it refers to the mandarin spoken in Taiwan, but I've seen it somewhere used to refer to the dialect spoken in Taiwan... So there's an ambiguity of the word?
user58955
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-09-28T07:47:15.650Z
@user58955 I mean Taiwan Mandarin. I see the ambiguity now and have updated the question.
NS.X.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-09-28T16:01:47.807Z
btw, I was mistaken in my earlier reply. 不行去 in my hometown dialect is 不-行(go)-去, instead of 不行-去...
user58955
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-09-28T16:08:07.537Z
@NS.X. Just asked a Taiwanese friend of mine, he said "這是近幾年來很奇怪的用法, 還有不錯吃之類的" (this is a strange usage just emerged in the recent few years) and he suspected that it started on some TV programme or on the internet
user58955
<mandarin><phrase><taiwan>
Usage of the phrase '不错用' in Taiwan Mandarin
# Usage of the phrase '不错用' in Taiwan Mandarin

(Asked by: username_0 on 2013-09-27)

I heard my Taiwanese friends use the Mandarin phrase `不错用` more than once, but didn't have a chance to ask them:

* Is it widely used in Taiwan, or is it used by a certain circle/type of person?
* What's the origin of the phrase, is it from a famous person or TV commercial?
* Are there any other phrases in the same pattern? E.g. do people say '不行去'?

**Tags:** mandarin, phrase, taiwan

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: What is the context when this phrase was spoken? Are you sure it is 不错用 or something that sounds like it, but in Taiwanese?  
> **username_2**: Are you sure it's not `不错哟`.  
> **username_0**: @QuestionOverflow I am sure it's 不错用 and it means 用起来不错. I am not sure how popular it is and who uses it. Searching google.com.tw and you'll see many hits. https://www.google.com.tw/#q=%E4%B8%8D%E9%94%99%E7%94%A8  
> **username_0**: @username_2 Check out my comment above.  
> **username_3**: Suspect that it's from the Southern Min dialect... 不行去 in my hometown dialect (Eastern Min dialect, which is not mutually intelligible with Southern Min dialect but shares a lot of common features) means `cannot go at the moment (because I'm occupied with other matters)'. In any case, this should not be considered as standard Mandarin however widely it is used in a region  
> **username_3**: I have a question about the word `Taiwanese' though. Looks like it refers to the mandarin spoken in Taiwan, but I've seen it somewhere used to refer to the dialect spoken in Taiwan... So there's an ambiguity of the word?  
> **username_0**: @username_3 I mean Taiwan Mandarin. I see the ambiguity now and have updated the question.  
> **username_3**: btw, I was mistaken in my earlier reply. 不行去 in my hometown dialect is 不-行(go)-去, instead of 不行-去...  
> **username_3**: @NS.X. Just asked a Taiwanese friend of mine, he said "這是近幾年來很奇怪的用法, 還有不錯吃之類的" (this is a strange usage just emerged in the recent few years) and he suspected that it started on some TV programme or on the internet  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_4 on 2013-09-30. Score: 9 | Accepted answer

Here are [some more examples](http://bbs.tianya.cn/post-333-208789-1.shtml) of this style of adjective:

> 好吃 = 不错吃
>
> 好玩 = 不错玩
>
> 好用 = 不错用
>
> 好喝 = 不错喝

These terms are extremely common in Taiwanese Mandarin, however their origins are unclear. I suspect it's due to a mix of Taiwanese terms and errors in translation.

Let's take one example, the 不錯吃 phrase. At first glance it seems to be an incorrect use of Mandarin grammar; if you want to use those characters correctly you'd get 吃起來不錯. Otherwise what you'd normally use would be 好吃.

However, there are a few sources that say that the origin of the phrase may have come from the Taiwanese ([Min](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Min_Chinese), not Mandarin) phrase [未歹食](http://blog.udn.com/boyamboy/6709234) or [袂歹食](http://blog.udn.com/glwang/7312408). 歹 means "bad" so if you negate it using 未 or 袂 it becomes "not bad". A naive calque may yield the phrase "不難吃", but that doesn't mean the same thing - it means "this doesn't taste bad", which is not the same as "this tastes good". When you negate adjectives, sometimes they become the opposite, but sometimes they become neutral, and it varies from phrase to phrase.

In order to overcome this inconsistency, people may have used
不錯 instead, which does mean "good". In other words, the transition is:

> 未歹食 -> 不難吃 -> 不錯吃

So you end up with this phrase which seems like bad grammar from a Mandarin perspective, and bad calquing from a Taiwanese perspective. But it's also very commonly used and is here to stay, so just deal with it! :)

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: +1 for the interesting source pointing out it may come from Min.  
> **username_5**: Great answer. It's not "transliteration" though; it's [calquing](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calque)--i.e., morpheme-by-morpheme translation--from Min to Mandarin. Transliteration would be trying to use characters to imitate the sound of the original Min.  
> **username_6**: Interesting! My Taiwanese friend suggests that he only use 不错用, but 不错吃, 不错喝 and 不错玩 are weird.  

---

