Chinese Phrases

FOR

DUMmIES

by Dr. Wendy Abraham

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Chinese Phrases

FOR

DUMmIES

by Dr. Wendy Abraham

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Chinese Phrases For DummiesPublished byWiley Publishing, Inc.111 River St.Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774www.wiley.com

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Published simultaneously in Canada

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About the AuthorWendy Abraham is the Associate Director of the StanfordCenter for Buddhist Studies and the Asian Religions &Cultures Initiative. She has taught courses on Chinese lan-guage, Chinese literature, and Asian cultures at HunterCollege, Georgetown University, New York University, andStanford University, where shes currently pursuing hersecond doctorate in modern Chinese literature. She spent ayear researching Shang Dynasty oracle bones in Taiwan,which sparked her deep interest in the development ofChinas written language. Wendy has directed Chinese lan-guage programs for American students in Beijing andShanghai and has interpreted for high-level arts delegationsfrom China. Her first doctoral dissertation from TeachersCollege (Columbia University) was on the Chinese Jews ofKaifeng, a subject about which she has written widely andcontinues to lecture frequently throughout the UnitedStates. She also created Jewish Historical Tours of China,bringing people to visit Shanghai and Kaifeng on educationaltrips. Her interest in all things Chinese continues unabated.

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Publishers AcknowledgmentsWere proud of this book; please send us your commentsthrough our Dummies online registration form located atwww.dummies.com/register/.

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Table of Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

About This Book ............................................................1Conventions Used in This Book ..................................2Foolish Assumptions ....................................................3Icons Used in This Book ...............................................3Where to Go from Here .................................................4

Chapter 1: I Say It How? Speaking Chinese . . . . . . . . 5The Written Word: Yikes! No Alphabet! ......................6Pinyin Spelling: Beijing, Not Peking ............................8Sounding Off: Basic Chinese Sounds ..........................9

Starting off with initials ........................................10Ending with finals ..................................................11Perfect pitch: Presenting . . . the four tones ......13

Adding Idioms and Popular Expressions to Your Repertoire ..................................................15

Mastering Basic Phrases ............................................17

Chapter 2: Grammar on a Diet: Just the Basics . . . . 19How Chinese Is Easier Than English .........................19Naming Those Nouns .................................................21

Pronouns ................................................................21Classifiers ...............................................................22Singular and plural: Its not an issue ...................23

Those Little Words: Definite Versus Indefinite Articles ...................................................24

Describing Adjectives .................................................26Verbs .............................................................................27

Feeling tense? Le, gu, and other aspect markers ..................................................27

Coverbs ...................................................................29To be or not to be: The verb sh ..........................30The special verb: Yu (to have) ..........................30Asking for what you want: The verb yo ............31

Advocating Adverbs ...................................................31B and Miyu: Total Negation .................................32Getting Possessive with the Particle De ...................33Asking Questions ........................................................34

The question particle ma ..................................34Using b to ask a question ...................................34Interrogative pronouns .........................................35

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Chinese Phrases For Dummies viChapter 3: Numerical Gumbo:

Counting of All Kinds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371, 2, 3: Cardinal Numbers ...........................................37Discovering Ordinal Numbers ...................................40Telling Time .................................................................41Monday, Tuesday: Weekdays .....................................44Using the Calendar and Dates ...................................46Money, Money, Money ................................................50

Making and exchanging money ...........................51Cashing checks and checking your cash ............53Doing your banking ...............................................54Accessing an ATM machine .................................56

Chapter 4: Making New Friends and Enjoying Small Talk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Making Introductions ..................................................57Acquainting yourself .............................................58Introducing your friends and family ...................58Asking people for their names .............................60Addressing new friends and strangers ...............61Taking (a.k.a. rejecting) compliments ................62Saying goodbye ......................................................62

Asking Basic Questions ..............................................63Chatting It Up ...............................................................66

Yakking about the weather ...................................66Finding out where people are from .....................68Chatting about family ...........................................70Making small talk on the job ................................71Talking about where you live ...............................73

Chapter 5: Enjoying a Drink and a Snack (or Meal!) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

All about Meals ............................................................75Dining Out ....................................................................76Understanding Whats on the Menu .........................78

Vegetarians delight ...............................................80Some favorite Chinese dishes ..............................81Sauces and seasonings .........................................82Dipping into some dim sum .................................82Ordering Western food .........................................84

Placing an Order and Chatting with the Wait Staff ...................................................86

Finding the Restrooms ...............................................89Finishing Your Meal and Paying the Bill ...................90All the Tea in China .....................................................91

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Table of Contents viiChapter 6: Shop til You Drop! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Going to Stores ............................................................93Shopping for Clothes ..................................................95

Whats your size? ...................................................95What are you wearing? Chun versus di ..........97Asking about the color .........................................98

Shopping for Other Items .........................................100Hunting for antiques ...........................................100Buying hi-tech and electronics ..........................101

Hitting the Markets for Food ...................................102Getting a Good Price and Paying .............................105

Negotiating prices at the night market .............105Demanding a refund ............................................106

Comparing Quality: Good, Better, Best ..................107

Chapter 7: Making Leisure a Top Priority . . . . . . . . 111Going Out on the Town .............................................111

Attending a performance ...................................111Exploring museums and galleries .....................114Visiting historical sites .......................................115Going to the movies ............................................116Listening to a concert .........................................118Hopping around bars and clubs ........................118

Naming Your Hobbies ...............................................119Exploring Nature .......................................................120Tapping into Your Artistic Side ...............................122Getting into Sports ....................................................123

Chapter 8: When You Gotta Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127Picking Up a Telephone ............................................127

Telephone basics .................................................127Making a phone call ............................................129Checking the answering machine .....................133

Heading Off to Work ..................................................134Your office digs ....................................................134Conducting a meeting .........................................135Scheduling and planning a meeting ..................136Starting the meeting ............................................137Making a presentation ........................................138Ending the meeting .............................................139

Discussing Business and Industry ..........................139Using the Internet .....................................................141

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Chinese Phrases For Dummies viiiChapter 9: I Get Around: Transportation . . . . . . . . . 143

On the Move: Types of Transportation ..................143Catching a plane ..................................................144Hailing a cab .........................................................148Hopping on the bus .............................................150Riding the rails .....................................................152

Going through Customs ...........................................154Asking for Directions ................................................156

Avoiding 20 questions: Just ask where ..........157Getting direction about directions ....................158Answering where questions ...........................159Giving directions .................................................160Expressing distances with l ..............................161Specifying cardinal points

with directional coverbs ................................163

Chapter 10: Finding a Place to Lay Your Weary Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Making a Room Reservation ....................................168Checking In Before You Hit the Pool .......................170Taking Advantage of Hotel Service .........................173Checking Out Before Heading Out ..........................176

Chapter 11: Dealing with Emergencies . . . . . . . . . . 179Calling for Help in Times of Need ............................179Receiving Medical Care ............................................180

Finding a doctor ..................................................182Describing what ails you ....................................183Discussing your medical history .......................185Making a diagnosis ..............................................186Treating yourself to better health .....................187

Calling the Police .......................................................189Acquiring Legal Help ................................................190

Chapter 12: Ten Favorite Chinese Expressions . . . 191Gngx Gngx ............................................................191Y L Pngn ..............................................................191Y Yn Nn Jn ............................................................192Mm Hh ................................................................192Ki Wn Xio ..............................................................192Mfan N .....................................................................193Znme Yng? ..............................................................193Qng Wn ....................................................................193Zj Li .........................................................................194iya! ............................................................................194

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Table of Contents ixChapter 13: Ten Phrases That Make You

Sound Like a Local . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195Hunyng Hunyng! ..................................................195Bc Bc .......................................................................195Jiyng Jiyng .........................................................196Mn Mn Ch! .............................................................196W Qng K ................................................................196Yu Kng Li Wn .....................................................196Loji Loji ...............................................................197Zh N Zo R Kng F ..............................................197Bkqi .........................................................................197Ho Ji Mi Jin .........................................................198

Index ......................................................199

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Introduction

G lobalization has made familiarity with otherpeople, cultures, and languages not only prefer-able in the 21st century, but also essential. With thehelp of the Internet, reaching out and touching some-one on the other side of the world has become aseasy as the click of a mouse. And yet, nothing quitebeats the excitement of a face-to-face encounter withsomeone who hails from the other side of the globe inhis or her own language. Communication in cyber-space doesnt even come close.

Whether youre going around the world for business,getting ready to study overseas, interested in fre-quenting Chinatown, befriending a Chinese-speakingclassmate or coworker, or just plain curious aboutChina, Chinese Phrases For Dummies can help you getacquainted with enough Chinese to carry on a decentconversation on any number of topics. You wontbecome fluent instantly, of course, but this bookhelps you greet a stranger, buy a plane ticket, ordersome food, and even adopt a baby. This book alsogives you some invaluable cultural tips so that youcan not only rattle off those newly acquired wordsand phrases, but also back them up with the rightbehavior at the right time.

I design this book to help guide you toward the suc-cessful use of one of the most difficult languages onearth. I hope this book makes studying Chinese fun.

About This BookThe good news is that you can use Chinese PhrasesFor Dummies anytime, anywhere. No mandatory classsessions, no exams, and no homework assignments todread. Need to get to a business meeting after youarrive in a new town? Just turn to the chapter on

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Chinese Phrases For Dummies 2

travel to find out how to haggle for a plane ticket,determine the price, and get to the airport on time.Have to make a sudden trip to the doctor? Turn to thechapter on health and figure out how to tell your care-givers exactly what ails you.

The beauty of this book is that it can basically be allthings to all people. You dont have to memorize onechapter before moving on to the next, if what thesecond chapter deals with what you really need. Readas much or as little as you want, as quickly or asslowly as you like. Whatever interests you is what youcan focus on. And remember: Youre discovering alanguage that simultaneously represents one of theworlds oldest civilizations and one of todays fastestgrowing economies.

Note: If youve never taken Chinese before, you maywant to read Chapters 1 and 2 before you tackle thelater chapters. They give you some of the basics thatyou need to know about the language, such as how topronounce the various sounds.

Conventions Used in This BookPay attention to a couple of conventions that can helpyou navigate this books contents:

Chinese terms are set in boldface to make themstand out.

Pronunciations and meanings appear in paren-theses immediately after the Chinese terms. Thepronunciations are in italics.

This book uses the pinyin (literally: spelling the way itsounds) romanization of Chinese words. What doesthat mean? Well, if you go to China, you see signs inChinese characters, but if you look for something inEnglish, you may be hard pressed to find it. Whateversigns you see in roman letters are in pinyin, theromanization system developed by the Communistsin the 1950s, so seeing pinyin in this book is goodpractice for you.

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Introduction 3

Something else to keep in mind as you begin to under-stand Chinese is that many of the English translationsyou see in this book arent exactly literal. Knowing thegist of what you hear or see is more important insteadof what individual words in any given phrase mean.For example, if you translate horse horse tiger tigerliterally into Chinese, you have the phrase meaningso so. Youre not actually talking about animals.Whenever I give a literal translation, I preface it withliterally in italics.

Foolish AssumptionsSome of the foolish assumptions I made about youwhile writing Chinese Phrases For Dummies are

You dont know any Chinese, except for maybe a couple of words you picked up from a goodkung-fu movie or the word tofu, which youpicked up while grocery shopping.

Your goal in life isnt to become an interpreter ofChinese at the United Nations. You just want topick up some useful words, phrases, and sen-tence constructions to make yourself under-stood when speaking Chinese.

You have no intention of spending hours andhours memorizing Chinese vocabulary andgrammar patterns.

You want to have fun while trying to speak a little Chinese, like at your local Chinese restaurant.

Icons Used in This BookThe cute little icons in the left-hand margins highlightthe kind of information youre looking at and can helpyou locate certain types of information in a hurry.This books five icons are

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Chinese Phrases For Dummies 4

The bulls-eye appears wherever I highlight a great idea to help make your study ofChinese easier.

This icon serves as a reminder about particu-larly important information concerningChinese.

The icon acts as a stop sign in your mind. Itwarns you something you need to avoidsaying or doing so that you dont make a foolof yourself.

This icon clues you in on fascinating bits ofinformation about China and Chinese cul-ture. Knowledge of a culture goes hand inhand with knowledge of a foreign language,so these icons help light the way as youembark on your journey.

This icon highlights various rules of gram-mar that may be unusual. Even though thisbook doesnt focus primarily on grammar, bypaying attention to these little grammaticalrules as they pop up can only enhance yoursuccessful execution of the language.

Where to Go from HereChinese is often considered one of the toughest languages in the world to master. Dont worry. Thegood news is that youre not trying to master it. Allyou want is for people to understand you when youopen your mouth. All you have to do now is turn towhichever chapter piques your curiosity and keeppracticing your favorite Chinese phrases when yourewith your family and friends in Chinatown.

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Chapter 1

I Say It How? SpeakingChinese

In This Chapter Getting a handle on basic Chinese sounds

Perfecting the four basic tones

Practicing Chinese idioms

Understanding basic Chinese phrases and gestures

Time to get your feet wet with the basics ofChinese. This chapter gives you the guidelinesthat help you pronounce words in standard Mandarin(the official language of both the Peoples Republic of China and Taiwan) like a native speaker and helpsyou get a handle on the four tones that distinguishthe Mandarin dialect. After you have the basics down,we show you how to construct basic Chinese phrases.

But before you dive in, heres a bit of advice: Dont beintimidated by all the tones! When studying a foreignlanguage, dont worry about making mistakes theminute you open your mouth.

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The Written Word: Yikes! No Alphabet!

With so many distinct dialects in Chinese, how dopeople communicate with each other? The answerlies in . . . (drum roll) . . . the written word.

Say you see two Chinese people sitting next to eachother on a train traveling from Canton to Shanghai. Ifthe Cantonese speaker reads the newspaper out loud,the guy from Shanghai wont have a clue what hessaying. But if they both read the same newspaper arti-cle silently to themselves, they could understandwhats going on in the world. Thats because Chinesecharacters are uniform all across the country.

Chinese words are written in beautiful, oftensymbolic configurations called characters.Each character is a word in and of itself, andsometimes its a part of a compound word. Itmakes no difference if you write the charac-ters from right to left, left to right, or top tobottom, because you can read and under-stand them in any order.

During the Han dynasty, a lexicographer named XuShen identified six ways in which Chinese charactersreflected meanings and sounds. Of these, four werethe most common:

Pictographs: These characters are formedaccording to the shape of the objects them-selves, such as the sun and the moon.

Ideographs: These characters represent moreabstract concepts. For example, the charactersfor above and below each have a horizontalline representing the horizon and another strokeleading out away above or below the horizon.

Complex ideographs: Combinations of simplercharacters, such as the sun and moon togetherwhich mean bright.

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Chapter 1: I Say It How? Speaking Chinese 7

Phonetic compounds: Also called logographs,these compound characters are formed by twographic elements one hinting at the meaningof the word and the other providing a clue tothe sound. Phonetic compounds account formore than 80 percent of all Chinese characters.

No matter which type of character you see, you wontfind any letters stringing them together like you see inEnglish. So how in the world do Chinese people con-sult a Chinese dictionary? In several different ways.

Because Chinese characters are composed of several(often many) strokes of the writing brush, one way tolook up a character is by counting the number ofstrokes and then looking up the character under theportion of the dictionary that notes characters bystrokes. But to do so, you have to know which radicalto check under first. Chinese characters have 214 radicals parts of the character that can help iden-tify what the character may signify, such as three dotson the left-hand side of the character representingwater. Each radical is itself composed of a certainnumber of strokes, so you have to first look up theradical by the number of strokes it takes to write it,and after you locate that radical, you start lookingonce more under the number of strokes left in thecharacter after that radical to locate the characteryou wanted to look up in the first place.

You can always just check under the pronunciation ofthe character (if you already know how to pronounceit), but you have to sift through every single charac-ter with the same pronunciation first, according towhich tone the word is spoken with first, second,third, or fourth. And because Chinese has so manyhomophones, this task isnt as easy as it may sound(no pun intended). For example the word pronouncedma if spoken with a first tone, means mother, witha second tone it means hemp, with a third tone itmeans horse, and with a fourth tone it means toscold. So if youre not careful you can scold yourmother and call her a horse.

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I bet you feel really relieved that youre only focusingon spoken Chinese and not the written languageabout now.

Pinyin Spelling: Beijing, Not Peking

To spell the way it sounds . . . thats the literal mean-ing of pnyn. For decades, Chinese had been translit-erated in any number of ways. Finally, in 1979, thePeoples Republic of China officially adopted pnynas its official romanization system. After the adoption,U.S. libraries and government agencies diligentlychanged all their prior records from other romaniza-tion systems into pnyn.

Keep in mind the following quick facts about some ofthe initial sounds in Mandarin when you see themwritten in the relatively new pnyn system:

J: Sounds like the g in gee whiz. An i oftenfollows a j. J kui qin? (jee kwye chyan)means How much money?

Q: Sounds like the ch in cheek. You neversee it followed by a u like in English, but an ialways follows it in pnyn, possibly beforeanother vowel or a consonant. Qngdo (cheengdaow) beer used to be spelled ching tao orTsingtao.

X: The third letter thats often followed by ani. It sounds like the sh in she. One famousChinese leader, Dng Xiopng (dung shyaowpeeng), boasted this letter in his name.

Zh: Unlike j, which often precedes a vowel making it sound like youre opening your mouth zh is followed by vowels, whichmake it sound like your mouth is a bit moreclosed. Take Zhu nli (joe un lye), for exam-ple, the great statesman of 20th-century China.When you say his name, it sounds like Joe Un-lye.

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Chapter 1: I Say It How? Speaking Chinese 9

Z: Sounds like a dz. You see it in the name ofthe PRCs first leader, Mo Zdng (maow dzuhdoong), which used to be spelled Mao Tse-tung.

C: Pronounced like ts in such words as ci(tsye; food) or csu (tsuh swaw; bathroom).

B, D, and G: In the past, the sounds made bythese three letters were represented by P, T, andK, respectively, and the corresponding aspiratedinitial sounds (like in the words pie, tie, andkite) were written as p, t, and k. Today,the letters P, T, and K represent the aspi-rated sounds.

Sounding Off: Basic Chinese Sounds

Dont worry about sounding like a native speaker thefirst time you utter a Chinese syllable after all, whodoes? But the longer you procrastinate becomingfamiliar with the basic elements of Chinese words, thegreater your fear of this unique language maybecome.

The main thing to remember about theChinese language is that each morpheme (thesmallest unit of meaning in a language) isrepresented by one syllable, which in turnconsists of an initial sound and a final sound,topped off by a tone. This applies to eachand every syllable. Without any one of thesethree components, your words may beincomprehensible to the average Chineseperson. For example, the syllable m iscomprised of the initial m and the final a,and you pronounce it with whats called afirst tone. Together, the parts mean mother.If you substitute the first tone for a thirdtone, which is written as m, you say theword horse. The following sections breakup the three parts and give each their due.

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Starting off with initialsIn Chinese, initials always consist of consonants.Table 1-1 lists the initials you encounter in theChinese language.

Table 1-1 Chinese InitialsChinese Letter Sound English Example

b baw bore

p paw paw

m maw more

f faw four

d duh done

t tuh ton

n nuh null

l luh lull

g guh gull

k kuh come

h huh hunt

j gee gee

q chee cheat

x she she

z dzuh ds in suds

c tsuh ts in huts

s suh sun

zh jir germ

ch chir churn

sh shir shirt

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