Chinglish can be compared with other interlanguage varieties of English, such as Britalian (from Italian), Czenglish (from Czech), Denglisch (German), Dunglish (Dutch), Franglais (French), Greeklish (Greek), Manglish (Malaysia), Runglish (Russian), Spanglish (Spanish), Swenglish (Swedish), Hunglish (Hungarian), Hebrish (Hebrew), Engrish (Japanese), Hinglish (Hindi), Konglish (Korean), Taglish (Tagalog), Bislish (Visayan), Singlish (in Singapore), Ponglish (Polish) and Tinglish (Thai).

[5]This dictionary cites the earliest recorded usage of Chinglish (noted as a jocular term) in 1957 and of Chinese English in 1857.

[7] Other colloquial portmanteau words for Chinese English include: Chenglish (recorded from 1979), Chinlish (1996), Chinenglish (1997), Changlish (2000) and Chinelish (2006).

Take for instance, this headline: "China lodges solemn representation over Japan's permission for Rebiya Kadeer's visit".

This unusual English phrase literally translates the original Chinese tíchū yánzhèng jiāoshè (提出嚴正交涉; 'lodge solemn representation'), combining tíchū "put forward; raise; pose bring up", yánzhèng "serious; stern; unyielding; solemn", and jiāoshè "mutual relations; negotiation; representation".

Meaning aside, any combination of roman letters elevates a commodity – khaki pants, toilet paper, potato chips – to a higher plane of chic by suggesting that the product is geared toward an international audience.

"[15] English first arrived in China in 1637, when British traders reached Hong Kong, Macau and Guangzhou (Canton).

[24][25] Chinese officials carried out campaigns to reduce Chinglish in preparation for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and the Expo 2010 in Shanghai.

"[27][28] Reporting from Beijing, Ben Macintyre lamented the loss of signs like "Show Mercy to the Slender Grass" because, "many of the best examples of Chinglish are delightful, reflecting the inventiveness that results when two such different languages collide".

[29] The Global Language Monitor doubted that Beijing's attempt to eradicate Chinglish could succeed, noting that "attempting to map a precise ideogram to any particular word in the million-word English lexicon is a nearly impossible task", and pointing out that the Games' official website contained the phrase "we share the charm and joy of the Olympic Games" (using "charm" as a transitive verb).

"Fortified by an army of 600 volunteers and a politburo of adroit English speakers, the commission has fixed more than 10,000 public signs (farewell "Teliot" and "urine district"), rewritten English-language historical placards and helped hundreds of restaurants recast offerings.

While conceding that "there's something undeniably Colonel Blimp-ish in making fun of the locals for their flawed command of your own mother tongue", Fallows observed a Shanghai museum with "Three Georges Exhibit" banners advertising a Three Gorges Dam exhibit, and wrote, "it truly is bizarre that so many organizations in China are willing to chisel English translations into stone, paint them on signs, print them on business cards, and expose them permanently to the world without making any effort to check whether they are right.

(古得猫宁)" [pronounced gǔ dé māo níng] (which could be literally translated as "ancient cat tranquility") and "I'm sorry (爱么搔瑞)" [ài me saō ruì] (which is nonsensical).

"[36] The Global Language Monitor predicts Chinglish will thrive, and estimates that roughly 20 percent of new English words derive from Chinglish, for instance, shanzhai (山寨; 'mountain stronghold', 'mountain village') meaning "counterfeit consumer goods; things done in parody"[37] — Huang Youyi, president of the China Internet Information Center, predicts that linguistic purism could be damaged by popular Chinese words of English origin (such as OK and LOL).

For example, compare the semantic clarity of English axiom, Chinese gōnglǐ 公理, and Chinglish (literal translation) "universal-principle"; median, zhōngshù 中数, and "centre-number"; or trapezoid, tīxíng 梯形, and "ladder-figure".

In 2017, the Government of the People's Republic of China introduced the national standard for its English translations to replace Chinglish.

For example, spring rolls would otherwise not have meaning in English if not for Chinglish speakers making it a loan translation to describe the food.

At the syntactic level, Chinese thinking has influenced Chinglish speakers to utilize a different sequence and structure to make sentences.

For English speakers, a common sequence is subject → predicate → object → adverbial ("John entered the room quietly").

[41] On the other hand, the Chinese sequence is subject → adverbial → predicate → object ("Lijing quiet enter room").

[45] For instance, Chinese verbs are not necessarily conjugated and there is no equivalent article for English "the", both of which can create awkward translations.

Chinglish has various causes, most commonly erroneous Chinese dictionaries, translation software, and incorrect English as a foreign language textbooks.

Liu, Feather and Qian warn that today's English-language publishers and teachers in China are passing on obsolete translations and incorrect rules of language to students.

Chinese speakers use 關 (关; guān) to refer to turning off things like electrical appliances or to close a door or window.

[52][53][54] Owing to the ubiquity of Chinglish mistakes throughout the Sinophone world, the following examples will exclude common misspellings (e.g., "energetically Englsih-friendly environment")[55] and typographical errors (a bilingual bus sign reading "往 不知道 To unknow"; wǎng 往 means "to; toward" and bùzhīdào 不知道 "don't know")[56] that can occur anywhere in the English-speaking world.