刀子嘴豆腐心

Chinese

		knife	mouth	tofu; bean curd	heart; mind
simp. and trad. (刀子嘴豆腐心)		刀子	嘴	豆腐	心
Literally: “a mouth as sharp as a knife and heart as soft as tofu”.

Pronunciation

Mandarin
(Pinyin): dāozi zuǐ dòufu xīn

(Zhuyin): ㄉㄠ ˙ㄗㄗㄨㄟˇ ㄉㄡˋ ˙ㄈㄨㄒㄧㄣ

Mandarin
- (Standard Chinese)⁺
  - Pinyin: dāozi zuǐ dòufu xīn
  - Zhuyin: ㄉㄠ ˙ㄗㄗㄨㄟˇ ㄉㄡˋ ˙ㄈㄨㄒㄧㄣ
  - Gwoyeu Romatzyh: dau.tzy tzoei dow.fu shin
  - IPA ^(key): /tɑʊ̯⁵⁵ d͡z̥z̩² t͡su̯eɪ̯²¹⁴⁻²¹¹ toʊ̯⁵¹ fu¹ ɕin⁵⁵/

Idiom

刀子嘴豆腐心

(slang) describes someone who has a sharp tongue but a soft heart; someone with more bark than bite

我們都知道你是個刀子嘴豆腐心。 [MSC, trad.]
我们都知道你是个刀子嘴豆腐心。 [MSC, simp.]
Wǒmen dōu zhīdào nǐ shì ge dāozi zuǐ dòufu xīn. [Pinyin]
We all know that even though you talk tough, you're a softy underneath it all.

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