軟 - Ruan3 - Soft, Weak, Gentle

Today: the mystery of staleness! Jenny was telling Yvonne to wrap some cookies back up tight so they don’t “Yang2 Diao4″. Yvonne said “What?” Jenny said “you know, Yang2 Diao4. Go stale!” Yvonne decided Jenny was crazy. Apparently in Yvonne’s family food left out never goes “Yang2 Diao4″, it only ever 軟掉 - Ruan3 Diao4 - Goes Soft (cookies or crackers), or 硬掉 - Ying4 Diao4 - Goes Hard (bread or cake). She had never heard of “Yang2 Diao4″ before and didn’t think it was Chinese! Jenny is pretty sure that’s how her mother always said it, but doesn’t know how to write it. None of the online dictionaries have anything close.

TODO: solve this mystery.