What do they mean: 爆雷/破哏/劇透?

If you talk about movies with a friend from Taiwan, you might come across this phrase: 爆雷(ㄅㄠˋ ㄌㄟˊ; bào léi).

So what does it mean?

爆雷(ㄅㄠˋ ㄌㄟˊ; bào léi) refers to the act of revealing what is going to happen in a story, a movie or a video game etc.

The word 爆(ㄅㄠˋ; bào) means to explode.

You can tell by its radical 火(ㄏㄨㄛˇ; huǒ), which means fire because understandably most explosions are accompanied with fire.

And 暴(ㄅㄠˋ; bào) has the meaning of being violent or hot tempered.

雷(ㄌㄟˊ; léi) means thunder.

The word 雷 is composed of two parts: 雨(ㄩˇ; yǔ) and 田(ㄊㄧㄢˊ; tián).

雨 is rain and 田 means farm or field.

You can imagine when rain falls down on the farm there’ll be thunder in the sky.

雷(ㄌㄟˊ; léi) also means explosive such as 地雷(ㄉㄧˋ ㄌㄟˊ; dì léi) which means landmine

In the phrase 爆雷, it takes the second meaning

So the phrase 爆雷 literally means to set off an explosive but what it really means is to spoil a movie or a TV show etc.

In this case, 雷 is equivalent to the English word spoiler

You can ask your friend not to spoil a movie you haven't watched by saying 不要爆雷哦(ㄅㄨˊ ㄧㄠˋ ㄅㄠˋ ㄌㄟˊ ㄛ; bú yào bào léi o)

不要(ㄅㄨˊ ㄧㄠˋ; bú yào) is don't

哦(ㄛ; o) is an interjection put in the end of the sentence to convey intimacy.

In this context it also gives a sense of request or reminder.

It’s like saying “Hey, don’t you tell me about the plot.”

When someone spoils a movie you can express your frustration by saying 幹嘛爆雷啊！？(ㄍㄢˋ ㄇㄚˊ ㄅㄠˋ ㄌㄟˊ ㄚ; gàn má bào léi ā)

Why did you spoil it?

幹嘛(ㄍㄢˋ ㄇㄚˊ; gàn má) is a casual way to say why

Be careful when you use it because it may be considered impolite

啊(ㄚ; ā) is an interjection to express surprise and question

Many bloggers in Taiwan put 有雷慎入(ㄧㄡˇ ㄌㄟˊ ㄕㄣˋ ㄖㄨˋ; yǒu léi shèn rù) after the title of their review to warn people that the article contains spoilers

It basically means “spoiler alert”

有(ㄧㄡˇ; yǒu) means “have” or “possess”

慎(ㄕㄣˋ; shèn) means “careful” or “cautious“

Here it is used as an adverb to modify 入(ㄖㄨˋ; rù) which means to enter

Together 慎入(ㄕㄣˋ ㄖㄨˋ; shèn rù) means “enter at your own discretion”

In Taiwan there's another similar phrase: 破哏(ㄆㄛˋ ㄍㄣˊ; pò gén)

破(ㄆㄛˋ; pò) means “to break” but here it means “to reveal”

哏(ㄍㄣˊ; gén) is the funny part of a comedy

you may see people use 破梗 but is actually incorrect

破哏 is the standard usage

In the mainland people use the phrase 劇透/剧透(ㄐㄩˋ ㄊㄡˋ; jù tòu)

It means plot revealing

劇透 is short for 劇情透露/剧情透露(ㄐㄩˋ ㄑㄧㄥˊ ㄊㄡˋ ㄌㄨˋ; jù qíng tòu lù)

劇(ㄐㄩˋ; jù) means drama or play

劇情(ㄐㄩˋ ㄑㄧㄥˊ; jù qíng) means plot

透露(ㄊㄡˋ ㄌㄨˋ; tòu lù) means to reveal

When 透 is used as verb it means to penetrate

As an adjective it means transparent

露 means to reveal or to expose

That's it

In the end let's go through the words mentioned earlier.

爆雷(ㄅㄠˋ ㄌㄟˊ; bào léi)

火(ㄏㄨㄛˇ; huǒ)

暴 (ㄅㄠˋ; bào)

雨(ㄩˇ; yǔ)

田(ㄊㄧㄢˊ; tián)

地雷(ㄉㄧˋ ㄌㄟˊ; dì léi)

不要爆雷哦(ㄅㄨˊ ㄧㄠˋ ㄅㄠˋ ㄌㄟˊ ㄛ; bú yào bào léi o)

幹嘛爆雷啊(ㄍㄢˋ ㄇㄚˊ ㄅㄠˋ ㄌㄟˊ ㄚ; gàn má bào léi ā)

有雷慎入(ㄧㄡˇ ㄌㄟˊ ㄕㄣˋ ㄖㄨˋ; yǒu léi shèn rù)

破哏(ㄆㄛˋ ㄍㄣˊ; pò gén)

劇透(ㄐㄩˋ ㄊㄡˋ; jù tòu)

劇情透露(ㄐㄩˋ ㄑㄧㄥˊ ㄊㄡˋ ㄌㄨˋ; jù qíng tòu lù)