Definition
小菜一碟 (xiǎo cài yì dié) is a colloquial idiom meaning 'a piece of cake' — used for tasks that are very easy or trivial. It's more casual than 轻而易举 (qīng ér yì jǔ), which is a formal, literary idiom for 'effortless'. Unlike 好容易 (hǎo róng yì), which often ironically means 'with great difficulty', 小菜一碟 always means 'very easy'.
idiom
a piece of cakevery easy
Examples
- 小菜一碟。Zuò zhè dào tí duì wǒ lái shuō xiǎo cài-yì dié.Doing this problem is a piece of cake for me.
- ，小菜一碟。Tā xué Zhōngwén sān nián le, kàn Zhōngwén xīnwén xiǎo cài-yì dié.He has studied Chinese for three years; reading Chinese news is a piece of cake for him.
- ，小菜一碟，。Bié dānxīn, zhè jiàn shì xiǎo cài-yì dié, wǒ shí fēnzhōng jiù néng wánchéng.Don't worry, this is a piece of cake. I can finish it in ten minutes.
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