Chinese
In Chinese, question words are used as placeholders. An unspecified object is shénme or shénme shénme (simplified Chinese: 什么什么; traditional Chinese: 什麼什麼; literally "what what") and an unspecified location is nǎlǐ (simplified Chinese: 哪里; traditional Chinese: 哪裡; literally "where").
The particle mǒu (某) often forms part of a placeholder. It occurs as a prefix of generic nouns (e.g. 某人 "some person"), perhaps with an intervening measure word (e.g. 某一場演出 "a certain show"), or substituting people's actual names (e.g. 李某 "Li Something").
Common placeholder names are:
- Zhang San (simplified Chinese: 张三; traditional Chinese: 張三; literally "Zhang Three")
- Li Si (Chinese: 李四; literally "Li Four")
- Wang Wu (Chinese: 王五; literally "Wang Five")
When more than three placeholders are needed, these are also occasionally used:
- Lu Er (simplified Chinese: 陆二; traditional Chinese: 陸二; literally "Lu Two")
- Zhao Liu (simplified Chinese: 赵六; traditional Chinese: 趙六; literally "Zhao Six")
- Sun Qi (simplified Chinese: 孙七; traditional Chinese: 孫七; literally "Sun Seven")
- Wang Ermazi (Chinese: 王二麻子; literally "Wang the Second Pockmark")
Zhang, Li, Wang, Zhao and Sun are among the most common Chinese surnames.
In Hong Kong, two other placeholder names, Wong Siu Ming (Chinese: 王小明) and Chan Tai Man (Chinese: 陳大文), are also used.
The expression 猴年马月 ("monkey year horse month") denotes an unknown but remote time in the future. For example, 等到猴年马月 is often translated as "to wait forever".
Read more about this topic: Erika Mustermann