• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 04:52
CEST 10:52
KST 17:52
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: In A Tizzy9[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Holy Diver5[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Rough Waters10[ASL22] Ro24 Preview: Siren's Call8[ASL22] Ro24 Preview: Summer's End9
Community News
Weekly Cups (Sep 13-20): herO scores triple2BSL Season 237Weekly Cups (Sep 7-12): SHIN, ByuN, MaxPax double down1StarCraft open world shooter announced at BlizzCon101Weekly Cups (Aug 30-Sep 7): herO thrives amid growing schism10
StarCraft 2
General
Balance hotfix patch 5.0.16b (July 16) Weekly Cups (Sep 13-20): herO scores triple Blizzard Classic Cup @ BlizzCon 2026 - $100k prize pool How do you feel about the StarCraft shooter announcement at BlizzCon 2026? The Death of Cheese: From a Professional Cheeser
Tourneys
Master Swan Open (Global Bronze-Master 2) Stellar Fest TWO the Moon (Dec 16-20) Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament 2026 GSTL Announcement RSL Revival: Season 6 - Qualifiers and Main Event
Strategy
[H] ZvP Mid-Late Game: Stalkers Collossi HT
Custom Maps
[M] (2) Frigid Storage
External Content
Mutation # 544 Double Trouble The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 543 Enhanced Defenses Mutation # 542 The Ascended
Brood War
General
Bot on ladder screpdb: new Starcraft reporting tool PLAYzone Challenge - open offline tour in Prague BSL Season 23 BW General Discussion
Tourneys
PLAYzone Challenge - open offline tour in Prague [ASL22] Ro8 Day 2 [ASL22] Ro16 Group D [ASL22] Ro8 Day 1
Strategy
Cliff Jump Revisited (1 in a 1000 strategy) Replay Review Process - What do you do? Simple Questions, Simple Answers Odyssey Mineral Stack Saturation
Other Games
General Games
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne Nintendo Switch Thread Diablo IV Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread EVE Corporation
Dota 2
Dota 2 Champions League Season 3 Begins April 25! Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Artificial Intelligence Thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine All you football fans (soccer)!
Fan Clubs
MarineLorD Fan Club The Creator Fan Club The ShoWTimE Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece Diablo Animated Series on Netflix
Sports
Football (Soccer) Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
Recent Gifted Posts
Blogs
Gaming Intensity, Problemati…
TrAiDoS
38 yo Retired SWE loo…
PurE)Rabbit-SF
Can Bots Beat Pros?? Starcr…
namkraft
[meme] I finally understa…
LUCKY_NOOB
Regacy Esports:Our Goa…
regacyesports
Dreaming of BW patches (mod…
c3rberUs
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 11641 users

Trivia: Common Chinese SC unit names. - Page 2

Forum Index > BW General
Post a Reply
Prev 1 2 3 Next All
ActualSteve
Profile Blog Joined April 2009
United States627 Posts
August 03 2009 02:28 GMT
#21
Hydralisk
"Spike/thorn snakes"

Very creative!

You are now breathing manually.
baubo
Profile Joined September 2008
China3370 Posts
August 03 2009 07:04 GMT
#22
On August 03 2009 11:06 darktreb wrote:
Show nested quote +
On August 03 2009 10:53 baubo wrote:
Generally, the names are easy to figure out. The only ones I never really got are protoss structures. BY = Core. VR/VC/VS = Robotics facility/support bay/observatory.


BY/VR/VC/VS is literally just the hotkey combination to build the building. They use this convention for a lot of buildings actually (I remember BE for Engineering Bays and BA for Academy among other things).


Yeah. I only found out very recently. It's due to me start watching SC and I've stopped playing the game myself. So it didn't occur to me. They use this for a lot of the buildings, as you say. I just mentioned those because they get mentioned more(intricate part of every protoss BO).

Umbrella: I don't know if there are others, but PLU(www.plu.cn) has live Chinese commentary of just about all the games. I'm surprised you don't know about them, considering there's usually some bitching about the Chinese commentary on the LR threads.
Meh
arb
Profile Blog Joined April 2008
Noobville17922 Posts
August 03 2009 07:33 GMT
#23
On August 03 2009 10:53 baubo wrote:
Some of these translations are a little too literal. A lot of the units are directly translated from name. For example, the Chinese name for carriers is indeed carriers or aircraft carriers, not naval flagship(the translation if you really break down the characters). And the name arbiter is based on real life arbiters, as in the people who make decisions in arbitration.

Btw, another name for hydra is spit.

Generally, the names are easy to figure out. The only ones I never really got are protoss structures. BY = Core. VR/VC/VS = Robotics facility/support bay/observatory.

Show nested quote +
On August 03 2009 10:27 AssuredVacancy wrote:
err isn't vulture thunder cars?


The word "Lei" has two meanings, both mines and thunder.

so Lei Lei = thunder thunder/mine mine/thunder mine
?(talking about the player of course)
Artillery spawned from the forges of Hell
baubo
Profile Joined September 2008
China3370 Posts
Last Edited: 2009-08-03 08:44:55
August 03 2009 08:44 GMT
#24
On August 03 2009 16:33 arb wrote:
Show nested quote +
On August 03 2009 10:53 baubo wrote:
Some of these translations are a little too literal. A lot of the units are directly translated from name. For example, the Chinese name for carriers is indeed carriers or aircraft carriers, not naval flagship(the translation if you really break down the characters). And the name arbiter is based on real life arbiters, as in the people who make decisions in arbitration.

Btw, another name for hydra is spit.

Generally, the names are easy to figure out. The only ones I never really got are protoss structures. BY = Core. VR/VC/VS = Robotics facility/support bay/observatory.

On August 03 2009 10:27 AssuredVacancy wrote:
err isn't vulture thunder cars?


The word "Lei" has two meanings, both mines and thunder.

so Lei Lei = thunder thunder/mine mine/thunder mine
?(talking about the player of course)


No. That's totally different. I know in pinyin(Chinese version of Romaji) it all looks the same. But leilei the starcraft nickname is based on the player's own first name, Lei(磊). Calling the first name twice, Leilei, is a common practice for close friends for certain names. The closest English analogy would be Bill for William or Cathy or Catherine.

The character is different from 雷, which means thunder/mine.
Meh
Alur
Profile Blog Joined March 2008
Denmark3900 Posts
August 03 2009 08:52 GMT
#25
White balls and Red balls is awesome, the english casters should start using that aswell.
AKA No can Dazzle | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlTpX7z3Pok
TL+ Member
Foucault
Profile Blog Joined May 2009
Sweden2826 Posts
August 03 2009 11:05 GMT
#26
so theres no:

keso kesoooo

or

asimida

involved in chinese commentating. What words do chinese use to strengthen an expression?
I know that deep inside of you there's a humongous set of testicles just waiting to pop out. Let 'em pop bro. //////////////////// AKA JensOfSweden // Lee Yoon Yeol forever.
ddengster
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
Singapore129 Posts
August 03 2009 11:38 GMT
#27
On August 03 2009 11:28 ActualSteve wrote:
Hydralisk
"Spike/thorn snakes"

Very creative!



I remember other commentators calling them 'kou shui' , which means saliva.
Check out NEO Impossible Bosses, RTS-MOBA boss rush at http://neoimpossiblebosses.coder-ddeng.com
kaleidoscope
Profile Blog Joined December 2008
Singapore2887 Posts
August 03 2009 11:39 GMT
#28
Hmm.. Aint ultralisks = cow (niu)?
대지따라 돌린게 시간이다.. 흘러가고 돌아오지도 않고..
krazymunky
Profile Joined June 2008
United States727 Posts
August 03 2009 12:09 GMT
#29
lol now i just need to hear commentary in cantonese
life of lively to live to life of full life thx to shield battery
ArvickHero
Profile Blog Joined October 2007
10387 Posts
August 03 2009 12:58 GMT
#30
this is like the SC2 units translated into korean..
Writerptrk
tobi9999
Profile Joined April 2009
United States1966 Posts
August 03 2009 13:01 GMT
#31
they call all worker nong min (farmers)
"tobi is ur iq 9999? cuz i think it might be u so smart wowowow." -Artosis
Funnytoss
Profile Blog Joined August 2007
Taiwan1471 Posts
August 04 2009 03:22 GMT
#32
It's interesting to see some of the differences between names used in "official" mandarin commentating and the more "slang" terms used here in Taiwan.

For example, we call reavers "caterpillars", but I imagine that wouldn't sound quite as professional in a broadcast.
AIV_Funnytoss and sGs.Funnytoss on iCCup
Last Romantic
Profile Blog Joined June 2006
United States20667 Posts
August 04 2009 03:44 GMT
#33
I've always heard Overlords called houses in Chinese :x
ㅋㄲㅈㅁ
baubo
Profile Joined September 2008
China3370 Posts
August 04 2009 04:32 GMT
#34
On August 03 2009 20:39 kaleidoscope wrote:
Hmm.. Aint ultralisks = cow (niu)?


They can be called either one.

On August 04 2009 12:44 Last Romantic wrote:
I've always heard Overlords called houses in Chinese :x


They are. Same with supply depots. Oddly enough, pylons are called... pylons.

Many units have multiple names. The OP just listed some used, but not even close to all of them. Chinese names are much more varied since they don't have official names to go by. And the names are more or less based on what the units do. i.e. photon cannons and sunkens are both called "land protectors", while spores and turrets are both called "anti-air".

On August 04 2009 12:22 Funnytoss wrote:
It's interesting to see some of the differences between names used in "official" mandarin commentating and the more "slang" terms used here in Taiwan.

For example, we call reavers "caterpillars", but I imagine that wouldn't sound quite as professional in a broadcast.


Trust me, the mandarin commentators are anything but "official". This doesn't come across with unit names, but more so with making fun of players.

For example, Skyhigh's nick was "Bad-Four Terran", which stood for: Bad game sense, Bad control, Bad attack, Bad looks. But now that Skyhigh has gotten good, the commentator's like... I got to change his nick.
Meh
Carnivorous Sheep
Profile Blog Joined November 2008
Baa?21247 Posts
August 04 2009 04:42 GMT
#35
On August 03 2009 17:52 Alur wrote:
White balls and Red balls is awesome, the english casters should start using that aswell.


Science balls :D
TranslatorBaa!
B1nary
Profile Blog Joined January 2008
Canada1267 Posts
August 04 2009 04:44 GMT
#36
I love listening to Chinese commentary, even though my Chinese sucks. I sometimes hear them call stuff "fake", just not in the context we use that word in English. Judging from context, the only meaning I can come up with is roughly "screwed up." Anyone better at Chinese care to enlighten me? =D

Also, just wondering, how insightful are the chinese commentators on PPStream or UUSee, compared to, say, Tasteless? I'm pretty bad so I can't really tell.
themonkyguy
Profile Blog Joined November 2008
Australia149 Posts
Last Edited: 2009-08-04 05:18:45
August 04 2009 04:52 GMT
#37
Some of the ones that I have heard that hasn't been mentioned yet, will add more as I remember it.

Defiler = scorpion (xie zi, 蝎子)
Dark swarm = fog (pen wu, 喷雾, literally "blow/spit fog")
Plague = spit blood (pen xue, 喷血)

Barrack = barrack (bing ying, 兵营)
Factory = heavy factory (zhong gong chang, 重工厂, or zhong gong for short)
Starport = airport (fei ji chang, 飞机场)
Spawning pool = dog pool (gou chi, 狗池)

Irradiate = radiation (fu she, 辐射)

-Note for non-chinese speakers: 'pen' in pingying sound more closer to 'pun', and 'she' sounds more like 'sher', in case you are interested.

CJ Entusman #48 (-_-)
hideo
Profile Blog Joined May 2007
Canada1641 Posts
Last Edited: 2009-08-04 05:49:59
August 04 2009 05:48 GMT
#38
Sometimes they like to name stuff by the hotkey.

e.g. Armory = VA. robo bay = VR
omninmo
Profile Blog Joined April 2008
2349 Posts
August 04 2009 06:10 GMT
#39
On August 03 2009 10:27 AssuredVacancy wrote:
err isn't vulture thunder cars?

technically 雷车 is thundercar. but since 地雷 means mine or bomb.
everyone knows that the 雷 in 雷车 refers to bombs and not thunder
omninmo
Profile Blog Joined April 2008
2349 Posts
August 04 2009 06:12 GMT
#40
your pinyin needs serious work bro.
ren zu, chong zu, shen zu
not zhu.

also hydras are known as 口水, kou2shui3, which just means saliva
Prev 1 2 3 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 1h 8m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 2023
Bisu 484
Shinee 93
HiyA 59
ToSsGirL 42
NaDa 39
Bale 37
ggaemo 30
soO 20
Sharp 16
Dota 2
XaKoH 402
League of Legends
JimRising 441
Counter-Strike
shoxiejesuss684
ceh9572
Other Games
gofns20415
summit1g10238
Happy435
crisheroes278
Sick198
Livibee125
UpATreeSC119
KnowMe87
Mew2King83
Organizations
Dota 2
PGL Dota 2 - Main Stream12348
Other Games
gamesdonequick672
StarCraft: Brood War
Afreeca ASL 439
[ Show 14 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• LUISG 36
• StrangeGG 21
• Letter1410
• mYiSmile19
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• lizZardDota2137
League of Legends
• Jankos574
Upcoming Events
The PondCast
1h 8m
Replay Cast
15h 8m
Korean StarCraft League
1d 18h
CranKy Ducklings
2 days
GSL
2 days
Yamato Cup
3 days
Replay Cast
3 days
Afreeca Starleague
4 days
Soma vs Jaedong
WardiTV Weekly
4 days
Monday Night Weeklies
4 days
[ Show More ]
Sparkling Tuna Cup
5 days
Afreeca Starleague
5 days
Leta vs Soulkey
PiGosaur Cup
5 days
Kung Fu Cup
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Super Anchor Qualifying S3
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Big Dog Cup 2026 Div 1

Ongoing

ASL Season 22
CSL 2026 AUTUMN (S22)
Acropolis #5
Acropolis #5 - GSA
Calamity Invitational
Logitech G Play Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #3
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026

Upcoming

Acropolis #5 - GSB
Acropolis #5 - GSC
BSL Season 23
SC4ALL II: Brood War
BSL 23: Non-Korean Championship
HSC XXX
Stellar Fest 2: Lunar Cup
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Offline Finals
Custodian Cup
Copium Cup
PGL Major Singapore 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 6
BLAST Rivals Fall 2026
IEM Beijing 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 5
PGL Masters Bucharest 2026
1win Private Club #2
Thunderpick World Champ. '26
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
1win Private Club #1
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.