Learn Chinese phrases, sentence – learn Mandarin – How to say “You are the apple of my eye” in Chinese: 你是我眼中的苹果. Ni3 shi4 wo3 yan3 zhong1 de5 ping2 guo3. Ni3 (second person pronoun, you) shi4 (a copula verb to link the subject and the complement, is) wo3 (here means wo3 de5, my) yan3 zhong1 (yan3 means eyes, zhong1 means in or within or inside, thus yan3 zhong1 here means in the eyes) de5 (a particle to connect the attribute and the object it describes) ping2 guo3 (apple).
Apple of my eye comes from old English, Shakespeare also used it in the 1590s when he wrote A Midsummer Night’s Dream:
“Flower of this purple dye, / Hit with Cupid’s archery, / Sink in apple of his eye”.
The pupil of the eyes is shaped like an apple. So, when you say “someone is the apple of your eyes” means that you see this person fondly and can see him or her for a long period of time.
There are a few phrases about eyes: yan3 jing1 (眼腈 eye), yan3 qiu2(眼球 eye ball), yan3 jie2 mao2 (眼睫毛 eyelashes), yan3 bai2 (眼白 the white part of the eyes) and jin4 shi4 yan3 (近视眼 near sighted eyes, myopia).
This following song – Love song 1990 -is written and sung by Luo Da You, it starts with describing how pretty the eyes are –烏溜溜的黑眼珠 和你的笑臉. Check the Chinese songs categories for the translation.