Drink instead of eat soup?

[MarsBlackman]

I just came across this sentence in my textbook. I'm assuming one "drinks" soup instead of eats it.

小张一喝酸辣汤就不舒服

[anonymoose]

That's right. One also "drinks" yoghurt, (regardless of whether it is drinking yoghurt or not).

By the way, Chinese soup tends to be a lot more watery than western soup, and more often than not, it is drunk straight from the bowl (as though the bowl were a cup), so in this case, it really is "drinking".

[jennychen]

In chinese,"喝”(to drink) can collocate with word which means beverage,soup and yoghourt ,so we can say:喝啤酒、喝果汁、喝汤，喝酸奶。

while in English，drink just collocate with beverage，i guess，in western food，soup and yoghourt are so thick and dense that is impossible to "drink", only can "eat",that is why English speaker never say drink soup or drink yoghourt

[Lu]

Yes, the Chinese drink their soup.

Interestingly, in Ba Jin's 'Jia' they eat their alcoholic drinks (chi jiu).

[adrianlondon]

Basically, in English we don't drink things with a spoon ;)

[chrix]

that somehow reminds me of the quote "das bißchen, was ich esse, kann ich auch trinken" ("the little amount I eat I can drink as well").

[xiaocai]

Interestingly, in Ba Jin's 'Jia' they eat their alcoholic drinks (chi jiu).

We still sometimes say 吃酒 in 四川话, and I think it is also common in some other dialects as well. Also you will only find 吃酒 but not 喝酒 in classical 小说 like 水浒 or 红楼梦.

[anonymoose]

We still sometimes say 吃酒 in 四川话, and I think it is also common in some other dialects as well

Yes, in Shanghainese, 酒、香烟、批评 are all eaten.

[HashiriKata]

We still sometimes say 吃酒 in 四川话, and I think it is also common in some other dialects as well.

Yes, the same with 吃醋...

[xiaocai]

Yes, in Shanghainese, 酒、香烟、批评 are all eaten.

Haha, how about: 吃生活.

Yes, the same with 吃醋...

Well you can either drink or eat it, depending on what kind of 醋 it is...

[trien27]

In Cantonese 食 = to eat, & 飲 = to drink. 煙 = short for 香煙, "cigarettes";

食煙 is often heard in Cantonese meaning to "smoke a cigarette", but normally

it would be 抽煙 if using Mandarin. 飲湯 = "Drink soup"/"Have some soup." Any type of liquid could be used with 飲: 飲水 = drink water; 飲[牛]奶 = drink milk; 飲洒 = drink wine; 飲啤洒 = drink beer, etc...

In ancient China, the soups tend to be thick, but nowadays it's not so, due to many factors: instant meals, takes less time to make, etc...

Edited November 22, 2009 at 07:11 PM by trien27

[renzhe]

You can also 吃茶 (see Ba Jin).