Visit literally anywhere remotely referring to the Chinese language on the internet today and be told that this day is (yet another) Valentines Day in the Middle Kingdom, on account that the pronunciation of this date sounds like “I love you in Chinese”. Rubbish.
今天在互联网上远程访问任何地方，用中文访问，都会被告知这一天是中国的（又一个）情人节，因为这个日期的发音听起来像“我爱你”。垃圾。
It doesn’t matter which way you choose to say today’s date in Chinese. You could say “5.20”. You could say “20 May” several different ways. And none of them, absolutely none of them, sound remotely like “I love you”.
您选择哪种方式用中文表达今天的日期并不重要。你可以说“5.20”。你可以用几种不同的方式说“20 May”。他们中没有一个，绝对没有一个，听起来像“我爱你”。
But 99.9 percent of the ever-so-wise internet would have us believe different. As an example, the blog, ninchanise.com, states, “When you write May 20th in numbers, it’s written 5.20. When you pronounce the numbers 5. 2. 0 in Chinese, 五二零 wǔ èr líng, they sound very close to the words 我爱你 wǒ ài nǐ. See? They don’t sound the same, but they sound quite similar, and that’s enough!”.
但 99.9% 的智慧互联网会让我们相信不同的观点。例如，ninchanise.com 博客中写道，“当你用数字写 5 月 20 日时，它会写成 5.20。当你用中文发音数字 5. 2. 0 时，它们听起来和我爱你 wǒ ài nǐ 非常接近。看到了吗？它们听起来不太一样，但听起来很相似，这就足够了！”。
Quite similar? Give me a break. Ok, ok, that’s a small blog. But even the mighty Wikipedia would have us think likewise. In its entry for “Chinese Internet slang”, the online mega depository states, “520 – ‘I love you’. 520 (pinyin: wǔ’èrlíng) represents 我爱你 (pinyin: wǒ ài nǐ)”.
很相似吗？让我休息一下。好吧好吧，这是一个小博客。但即使是强大的维基百科也会让我们有同样的想法。在其“中国网络俚语”条目中，该在线大存储库指出，“520——‘我爱你’。520（拼音：wǔ’èrlíng）代表我爱你（拼音：wǒài nǐ）”。
Now of course any foreigner in China who has unwaxed their ears of late can tell you they don’t sound similar at all. And that’s because these online references are all pointing to entirely the wrong concept.
当然，任何最近在中国给耳朵脱蜡的外国人都可以告诉你，他们听起来一点也不相似。那是因为这些在线参考文献都指向完全错误的概念。
The fact is the association with today’s date came later, so let’s take “20 May” out of the equation.
事实上，与今天的日期的关联是后来出现的，所以让我们把“5 月 20 日”排除在外。
To their credit, the aforementioned blog is correct in saying, “520 originally started as a slang word used by the Chinese online as a shortcut to say ‘I love you’ in Chinese, like ILY in English”.
值得赞扬的是，上述博客的说法是正确的，“520 最初是中国人在网上使用的一个俚语，作为中文说‘我爱你’的快捷方式，就像英语中的 ILY”。
However, saying “five-two-zero” still does not sound like “I love you”.
然而，说“五二零”听起来仍然不像“我爱你”。
But that’s unless you say “five hundred and twentieth”, for which the Chinese is in fact “五百廿” (wǔ bǎi niàn), unquestionably sounding like “wǒ ài nǐ”.
但除非你说“五百二十”，否则汉语实际上是“五百二十”（wǔ bǎi niàn），毫无疑问听起来像“wǒ ài nǐ”。
Interestingly, and away from today’s amorous associations, that final character, “廿” (niàn), is most commonly used by bankers, when they can’t be bothered with the more complicated anti-fraud numeral, “念”, which also means to think of, recall, study, or even to to give somebody a right-old tongue-lashing.
有趣的是，与当今的多情联想不同，最后一个字符“廿”（niàn）是银行家最常用的，因为他们懒得去理会更复杂的反欺诈数字“念”，“念”也意味着思考、回忆、研究，甚至是对某人的严厉斥责。
For more such wonderful idiosyncrasies from the Chinese language, see the upcoming June issue of The Nanjinger magazine, with the theme of “Vernacular”.
更多精彩的汉语特质，请参见即将出版的以“白话”为主题的《南京人》杂志六月号。
