新鲜(xīn xiān) - fresh, novel in Mandarin

新鲜 (xīn xiān) is fresh in the food and air sense: produce that has not gone off, milk that is still good, a lungful of clean air. It is one of the highest-value adjectives at a market stall, where 新鲜吗 does most of the negotiating.

It also carries the English sense of novel. 新鲜事 is a piece of news, something new under the sun, and 图个新鲜 means doing something just for the novelty. When people say 你这话我听着新鲜, they mean that is a new one on me.

Two traps. The second syllable is very often neutralised in the north, so you will hear xīn xian, and the tone-marked xiān can sound over-careful. And do not use it for new objects: a new phone is 新手机, never 新鲜手机. 新鲜 is about something not having gone stale, not about it having just been bought.