Definition
说空话 means 'to talk empty talk' or 'to spout empty verbiage' — saying things that sound good or impressive but lack real substance or follow-through. It is a separable verb (离合词) where 说 (to speak) is the verb and 空话 (empty words) is the object; you can insert time words, measure words, or complements between them (e.g. 说了很多空话 'talked a lot of empty talk', 说过一句空话 'uttered one sentence of empty talk'). Note: the correct pronunciation is shuō kōng huà, though the source pinyin lists an erroneous shuì (which belongs to a different meaning of 说).
v.o.
to talk empty wordsto spout empty verbiage
Examples
- 说空话，。Tā zhǐ huì shuì, cónglái bú zuò shì.He only talks empty talk, never does anything.
- ，。Bié tīng tā de, tā shuō de dōu shì kōng huà.Don't listen to him; everything he says is empty talk.
- ，。Lǐngdǎo zài huì shàng shuō le yí dà duī kōng huà, méiyǒu jiějué rènhé wèntí.The leader spouted a whole pile of empty talk at the meeting and didn't solve any problem.
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