马马虎虎mǎ ma hū hūcareless

1. 1.

   carelessidiom

2. 2.

   so-soidiom

Figurative meaning

Careless; casual; vague; not so bad; so-so; tolerable; fair.

• 马not compositional here
• 马not compositional here
• 虎not compositional here
• 虎not compositional here

No attested origin story

马马虎虎 is informal and can describe careless work, or answer a question about how something is going.

1. HSK 3

   他做作业总是马马虎虎的。

   Tā zuò zuòyè zǒngshì mǎ ma hū hū de.

   He always does his homework carelessly.

2. HSK 3

   我的汉语马马虎虎，还要多练习。

   Wǒ de Hànyǔ mǎ ma hū hū, hái yào duō liànxí.

   My Chinese is so-so; I still need to practice more.

1. 
   Speaker A:

   你今天考试考得怎么样？

   Nǐ jīntiān kǎoshì kǎo de zěnmeyàng?

   How did your exam go today?

2. 
   Speaker B:

   马马虎虎吧。

   Mǎ ma hū hū ba.

   So-so.

3. 
   Speaker A:

   题难吗？

   Tí nán ma?

   Were the questions hard?

4. 
   Speaker B:

   不太难，可是我写得太快了。

   Bú tài nán, kěshì wǒ xiě de tài kuài le.

   Not too hard, but I wrote too fast.

1. 1.What does 马马虎虎 mean?

   ACareless; so-soBVery fastCBrave and strong
2. 2.Which sentence uses 马马虎虎 correctly?

   A我的汉语马马虎虎，还要多练习。B他马马虎虎了一匹马。C我们马马虎虎地去中国。
3. 3.Which word fits best? 你最近怎么样？——____吧。 (How have you been lately? — So-so.)

   A马马虎虎B一箭双雕C卧薪尝胆

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• 走马观花zǒu mǎ guān huāsuperficial understanding from cursory observationNot on the HSK 3.0 syllabus
• 马到成功mǎ dào chéng gōngto win instant successNot on the HSK 3.0 syllabus

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