Chinese For Dummies (25 page)

Taking (that is, rejecting) compliments

Chinese people are always impressed whenever they meet a foreigner who has taken the time to learn their language. So when you speak
Zhōngwén
中文
(joong-one) (
Chinese
) to a
Zhōngguórén
中国人
(
中國人
) (joong-gwaw-run) (
Chinese person
), he may very well say
Nǐde Zhōngwén tài hǎole.
你的中文太好了
. (nee-duh joong-one tye how-luh.) (
Your Chinese is fantastic.
) Instead of patting yourself on the back, however, you should be slightly self-deprecating in your response. Don't give in to the temptation to accept the compliment easily and say
Xièxiè.
谢谢
(
謝謝
). (shyeh-shyeh.) (
Thanks.
), because doing so implies that you agree wholeheartedly with the complimentary assessment. Instead, try one of the following replies. Each of them can be roughly translated as
It's nothing.
or the equivalent of
No, no, I don't deserve any praise.:

Guò jiǎng guò jiǎng.
过讲过讲.
(
過講過講.
) (gwaw jyahng gwaw jyahng.)

Nálǐ nálǐ.
哪里哪里.
(
哪裡哪裡.
) (nah-lee nah-lee.)

Nǎr de huà.
哪儿的话.
(
哪兒的話.
)
(nar duh hwah.)

Saying goodbye

When it comes time to say goodbye, you can always say
Zài jiàn.
再见.
(
再見.
) (dzye jyan.) (
Goodbye.
). If you're just leaving for a little while and plan to be back soon, you can say
Yīhuǐr jiàn.
一会儿见.
(
一會兒見.
) (ee-hwahr jyan.) (
See you in a bit.
). And if you won't see someone until the next day, you can say
Míngtiān jiàn.
明天见.
(
明天見.
) (meeng-tyan jyan.) (
See you tomorrow.
). For a quick
See you later.,
you can say
Huítóu jiàn.
回头见.
(
回頭見.
) (hway-toe jyan.). Here are some other phrases you can use to say goodbye:

Míngnián jiàn.
明年见.
(
明年見.
) (meeng-nyan jyan.) (
See you next year.
)

Xiàge lǐbài jiàn.
下个礼拜见.
(
下個禮拜見.
)
(shyah-guh lee-bye jyan.) (
See you next week.
)

Xīngqī'èr jiàn.
星期二见.
(
星期二見.
) (sheeng-chee-are jyan.) (
See you on Tuesday.
)

Yílù píng'ān.
一路平安
. (ee-loo peeng ahn.) (
Have a good trip.
)

For more days-of-the-week options to use in the next to last item in the list, head to
Chapter 5
.

 Fun & Games

Activity 1:
Here's a list of words that got loose. See if you can put them back where they belong in the following text. The answers are in
Appendix D
.

míngzi
名字
,
bàofēngxuě
暴风雪
(
暴風雪
),
jiàn
见
(
見
),
Déguórén
德国人
(
德國人
),
hǎo
好

Zǎo. Nǐ ____. Wǒde ______ jiào John. Wǒ shì __________. Jīntiān de tiānqì hěn hǎo. Méiyǒu ___________. Huítóu ______.

早。你
——
。
我的
——
叫
John.
我是
——
。
今天的天气
(
æ°£
)
很好。
没有
——
。 回头
(
é ­
) ——
。

Activity 2:
Match the situation with the appropriate expression. You can find the answers in
Appendix D
.

Chapter 5

Getting Your Numbers, Times, and Measurements Straight

In This Chapter

Counting to 100 and beyond

Knowing times and periods of the day

Discovering calendar words and Chinese holidays

K
now how they figured out that China has more than a billion people? They counted, silly. Okay, they probably conducted an official census, but if you can learn your ABCs in English, you can at least learn to count to a hundred in Chinese. Just multiply that by ten, and you'll get to a billion. The words for Chinese numbers are really quite logical — easier than you think — and they're the cornerstone of this chapter.

After you know how to count, you can also say the days of the week and the months of the year. The chapter also covers cardinal and ordinal numbers, so you can tell which came first (the chicken or the egg). If you've got a train to catch, you can look to this chapter to figure out how to tell time so you won't be late.
You can even tell your Chinese date what the date is in Chinese. Finally, I give you the lowdown on key Chinese holidays so you can plan your work and travel schedule accordingly, including showing you how to extend New Year's greetings and providing a whole list of which animals are coming up in the Chinese zodiac. What more could you ask for?

Counting in Chinese

Figuring out things like how to specify the number of pounds of meat you want to buy at the market, how much money you want to change at the airport, or how much that cab ride from your hotel is really going to cost can be quite an ordeal if you don't know the basic words for numbers. The following sections break down the Chinese counting rules and terms.

Numbers from 1 to 10

Learning to count from 1 to 10 in Chinese is as easy as
yī
一
(ee) (
one
),
èr
二
(are) (
two
),
sān
三
(sahn) (
three
).
Table 5-1
lists numbers from 1 to 10. People in China use Arabic numerals as well, though, so you can just as easily write
1, 2, 3,
and everyone will know what you mean.

Table 5-1 Numbers from 1 to 10

If the number
2
comes before a classifier, use the word
liǎng
rather than
èr.
(As I discuss in
Chapter 3
,
classifiers
are the equivalent of English words such as
herd
[of elephants] or
school
[of fish]. They help classify particular nouns.) So to say that you have
two books,
you say that you have
liǎng běn shū
两本书
(
兩本書
) (lyahng bun shoo) rather than
èr běn shū
二本书
(
二本書
) (are bun shoo).

Numbers from 11 to 99

After the number
10,
you create numbers by saying the word
10
followed by the single digit that, when added to it, will combine to create numbers 11 through 19. It's really easy. For example,
11
is
shíyī
十一
(shir-ee) — literally,
10 plus 1.
Same thing goes for 12, and so on through 19.
Table 5-2
lists numbers from 11 to 19.

Table 5-2 Numbers from 11 to 19

When you get to 20, you have to literally think
two 10s
— plus whatever single digit you want to add to that for 21 through 29, as shown in
Table 5-3
.

Table 5-3 Numbers from 20 to 29

The same basic idea goes for
sānshí
三十
(sahn-shir) (
30
[Literally:
three 10s
]),
sìshí
四十
(suh-shir) (
40
),
wǔshí
五十
(woo-shir) (
50
),
liùshí
六十
(lyo-shir) (
60
),
qīshí
七十
(chee-shir) (
70
),
bāshí
八十
(bah-shir) (
80
), and
jiǔshí
九十
(jyoe-shir) (
90
). What could be easier?

Numbers from 100 to 9,999

After the number
99,
you can no longer count by tens. Here's how you say 100 and 1,000:

100
is
yìbǎi
一百
(ee-bye).

1,000
is
yìqiān
一千
(ee-chyan).