Meeting people in Mandarin Chinese
How are you, what is your name, where are you from, I like it: the first five minutes. Play the ten Mandarin Chinese words against the clock, with a note on how locals really use each one after every answer. All ten are written out below.
All 10 Mandarin Chinese phrases in this lesson
- 您好吗neen-HOW-ma
- How are you?
- 我很好wo hen-HOW
- I'm fine, thanks
- 你呢nee-NUH
- And you?
- 你叫什么名字？nee jyow SHUN-muh ming-dzuh
- What's your name?
- 我叫...wo JYOW
- My name is...
- 你是哪国人？nee shir NA-gwo-ren
- Where are you from?
- 我来自...wo lai-DZUH
- I'm from...
- 我很喜欢wo hen shee-HWAN
- I like it
- 很漂亮hen pyow-LYANG
- It's beautiful
- 欢迎hwan-YING
- Welcome
Textbook-polite with the honorific nín. Truthfully, 你好吗 is a bit of a learner phrase: locals ask "have you eaten?" or "where are you off to?" instead. All of them just mean hi.
Literally "I very good"; the hěn is grammatically required padding, not emphasis. 还行 (hai-SHING), "still okay", is the honest shrugging middle answer locals actually give.
The beautiful two-syllable volley: whatever was asked of you, nǐ ne bounces it back. Works after any question in the language.
Literally "what name are you called?".
Literally "you are a person of which country?".
You will hear 欢迎光临 (hwan-ying gwang-LIN), welcome to our store, shouted in chorus as you enter any shop or restaurant. No reply is expected; a nod suffices. Now you know what they are saying.