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Ladies first, 女士优先 After you 您先请 Excuse me, I have a call to answer. 不好意思,我接个电
话。Do you mind if I smoke? 你介意我抽烟吗? All in today’s Chinese Studio
Conversation 1:
A: 您先请。
B: 不,您先请。女士优先嘛。
A: 谢谢。
B: 不客气。
B: As you said Yajie, “After you” is good manners. What’ s it in Chinese again?
Y: it’s “nin2 xian1 qing3.”
B: nin2 xian1 qing3
Y: nin2 is the polite form of ni3, which means you,
B: nin2,
Coryright 2007 cchello.com
www.cchello.com
Y: xian1 here it means start off before the others,
B: xian1
Y: qing3 means please,
B: qing3.
Y: nin2 xian1 qing3
B: nin2 xian1 qing3 After you.
Conversation 2:
A: 您先请。
B: 谢谢。
B: Yajie, one useful sentence I learned this week is “Excuse me, I have a call to answer”. Let’s
review it, hao ma?
Y: hao de. It’s bu4 hao3 yi4 si, wo3 jie1 ge4 dian4 hua4.
B: bu4 hao3 yi4 si.wo3 jie1 ge4 dian4 hua4.
Y: bu4 hao3 yi4 si means excuse me.
B: bu4 hao3 yi4 si.
Y: wo3 means I,
B: wo3.
Y: jie1 means answer a phone call,
B: jie1.
Y: ge4 is short for yi2 ge4, which means one,
B: ge4.
Y: dian4 hua4 means phone call,
B: dian4 hua4.
Y: wo3 jie1 ge4 dian4 hua4
B: wo3 jie1 ge4 dian4 hua4 I have a call to answer.
Y: Now let’s repeat the whole sentence…bu4 hao3 yi4 si.wo3 jie1 ge4 dian4 hua4.
B: bu4 hao3 yi4 si.wo3 jie1 ge4 dian4 hua4. Excuse me, I have a phone call to answer.
Conversation 3:
A: 不好意思,我接个电话.
B: 没关系。
Y: Brendan, do you still remember how to say “Do you mind if I smoke”?
B: Let me see… “ni3 jie4 yi4 wo3 chou1 yan1 ma?”
Y: very good! ni3 means you,
B: ni3,
Y: jie4 yi4 means mind,
B: jie4 yi4,
Y: wo3 means I,
B: wo3,
Coryright 2007 cchello.com
www.cchello.com
Y: chou1 yan1 means smoke,
B: chou1 yan1,
Y: ma is often put at the end of a question.
B: ma.
Y: ni3 jie4 yi4 wo3 chou1 yan1 ma?
B: ni3 jie4 yi4 wo3 chou1 yan1 ma? Do you mind if I smoke.
Conversation 4:
A: 你介意我抽烟吗?
B: 不介意。
B: With that we come to the end of this week’s Chinese Studio. Now time for our question of
the day-- How do you say “Excuse me, I have a call to answer.” in Chinese?
Coryright 2007 cchello.com