A Castle in the Air or a Mirage

Characters:

Pronunciation: kong(1) zhong(1) ge(2) lou(2)
Explanation: Meaning something is impossible to carry out

Tone: Neutral

The Story: Long long ago, there was a stupid rich man. One day, he visited a friend and saw his friend's 3-storey building. He liked it very much. When he came back to his own home, he called a carpenter and asked him to build the same kind of house for him.

The carpenter began to dig the foundations and make the vallum. When the rich man saw this, he asked: "What kind of house are you going to construct?"

"A three-storey building," replied the carpenter.

"Oh, I do not want the 2 floors under it, I just want the third floor," said the rich man.

"But how can we build the 3rd floor if we do not have the 2 floors under it?" the carpenter asked.

No matter how the carpenter explained this concept to the rich man, the rich man just insisted on his own opinion of 'only the 3rd floor'.

Wow! Another good idiom for daily use!

Usage Example (Pinyin): Dang(1) wo(3) shuo(1) ming(2) nian(2) wo(3) jiang(3) you(3) ge(4) bao(3) bao(3) de shi(2) hou(4), suo(3) you(3) de peng(2) you(3) dou(1) shuo(1) na(4) shi(4) kong(1) zhong(1) ge(2) lou(2)

Usage Example (English translation): When I said that I would have a baby next year, all my friends think that's a castle in the air or mirage.

Note: The spoken Chinese Mandarin language has 4 spoken tones. We have attempted to re-create those above where after each syllable we tell you (1), (2), (3), or (4) as they correspond to each of the 4 tones. We encourage you to complement your Xianzai.com Chinese Idioms newsletter with a good offline study program.