20 Essential Chinese Phrases For Newbies and Travellers

20 Essential Chinese Phrases for
Newbies and Travellers
I recently took a few weeks out of the Written Chinese Office to spend some time
travelling with my parents and fiance in China. I was really impressed by how quickly
they picked up words and asked what they meant. Even on the first day, they were
already saying 你好 (Hello) and 谢谢 (Thanks). I have to admit, rather embarrassingly,
that it took me a lot longer to master these basic phrases when I first arrived in China.
You can hear what they thought of their first few days in China on the
Two White Chicks
in China podcast
.
The following phrases are for complete beginners of Chinese, or for those who wish to
have some basics under their belt for travelling in China. Unless you’re really interesting
in learning the Chinese language, you might not want to put a whole lot of time into
studying Chinese, especially if it’s for a short time or you have a tour guide for your trip.
However, just like learning to say bonjour in French or danke schön in German, you can
just as easily learn these essential Chinese phrases too!
Each Chinese phrase below is linked to our
Online Written Chinese Dictionary
where
you can click on each word to hear the pronunciation and a more detailed breakdown of
a character. We have also collated even more essential Chinese phrases for beginners
or people travelling to China in our
Written Chinese Mobile app
as a flashcard set.
If you’re completely new to Chinese, it’s worth noting that the Chinese ‘alphabet’ is not
the same as the English one, so listening to how words are pronounced is quite
important.
Essential Chinese Phrases
谢谢
1. Thank you! (xiè xie) ！
Page 1 of 7 Find more Chinese Learning on http://www.writtenchinese.com

A simple way to say thank you
2. You’re welcome. (bú yòng xiè) 。
不用谢
Literally translated as ‘no need for thanks’, this a common response to 谢谢 (thanks).
3. Hello (nǐ hǎo) 。
你好
Hello in Chinese combines the words ‘you’ and ‘good’. To ask someone ‘How are you?’,
just add the character ‘吗‘. This character is used when asking a question:
How are you? (nǐ hǎo ma)
你好吗?
好
4. OK/Good (hǎo) / (hǎo de)
好的
5. Not OK/ Not Good (bù hǎo)
不好
请问
6. May I ask… (qǐng wèn) …
对不起
7. I’m sorry (duì bu qǐ)
对
The first character in this phrase, (duì) also means ‘right’ and is often used in the
same way we would use ‘yeah’ in English.
It is common in Chinese for short words such as 对 (right) and 好 (OK) are often
repeated 3 times for emphasis.
Chinese Phrases for Travelling


8. Do you speak English? (nǐ huì shuō yīng yǔ ma?)
你
会说英语吗？
If you’re travelling in China, I feel as though you should try and get this question
mastered because you can never assume that everyone will speak English. On the
other hand, you might be pleasantly surprised by how many people can speak English
in China!
If you ask this question, you need to be able to understand their response as they might
not say ‘yes’ or ‘no’!
If they cannot speak English, they will probably respond with:
I can’t speak (bù huì) 。
不会
9. Where is the bathroom? (xǐ shǒu jiān zài nǎ lǐ?)
洗手
间在哪里？
This is a pretty important one, especially if the bathroom sign isn’t in English. Most
people will point you in the correct direction!
10. Help! (jiù mìng) ！
救命
Hopefully, you won’t need to use this whilst travelling in China, but it’s good to know
how to get the attention of people around you.
11. I’m sorry, I don’t understand. (bù hǎo yì si, wǒ méi
tīng dǒng)
不好意思，我没听懂。
There may be times when someone speaks to you in Chinese, and you have absolutely
no idea what they’re saying. No need to be rude, just be honest and say so!

You may also be asked:
Do you understand (what I’m saying)? (tīng de dǒng ma?) / (tīng dǒng le
听得懂吗？
ma?)
听懂了吗？
If you don’t understand, you can respond with (tīng bu dǒng),
听不懂 (méi tīng
没听懂
dǒng) or (méi yǒu)*.
没有
I relied heavily on the phrase (tīng bu dǒng) instead of actually studying, but it’s
听不懂
definitely a useful phrase to know.
If you can understand, you can reply using (shì de), which means ‘yes’ or
是的听懂了
(tīng dǒng le), ‘I understand what you are saying’.
*没有 is a simple phrase that you will almost certainly begin to hear EVERYWHERE.
Not only is it a useful phrase to be able to speak and listen out for, but when spoken it
sounds like ‘mayo’.
It can be used to say ‘no’ or ‘I don’t have (something)’.
借过一下
12. Please excuse me. (jiè guò yī xià) 。
If you find yourself squashed on the metro and the doors open on the other side, you
can politely use this phrase to have them move aside for you!
13. Wait a moment. (děng yī xià) 。
等一下
You may not actually use this phrase yourself, but you’ll probably hear it spoken
frequently.
An alternative version of this phrase is (děng yī děng).
等一等
欢迎光临
14. Welcome (huān yíng guāng lín)
This is another phrase you will hear throughout your day when you enter shops,
restaurants and cafes.

结账
15. The bill, please. Thank you. (jié zhàng, xiè xie)
，谢谢。
买单, 谢谢.
You may also say 买
(mǎi dān, xiè xie.) The first character, (mǎi) means ‘to
buy’.
Extra Sentence: I want…(wǒ yào)
我要
。。。
Combine this sentence with the following items:
…a beer 。。。(yī píng pí jiǔ) 。
一瓶啤酒
…a cup of coffee 。。。(yī bēi kā fēi) 。
一杯咖啡
…a bottle of water 。。。(yī píng shuǐ) 。
一瓶水
If you forget how to say a specific
measure word
, such as ‘a bottle’ or ‘cup’, you can use
(yī gè) which is a general term for ‘one of’ something.
一个
这个多少
16. How much is it? (zhè ge duō shao qián?)
钱
？
Even if you haven’t learned all the
numbers in Chinese
, you will either receive a paper
bill in a restaurant, or be shown the price on a calculator (it’s pretty handy, especially if
you want to haggle the price).
More Phrases for Beginners
17. How do you say that in Chinese? (zhè ge yòng hàn
这个用汉语这么说？
yǔ zhè me shuō?)

If you’re a curious beginner, you can use this phrase to ask someone how to say a
particular object in Chinese. This is useful if you’re in your local supermarket or
restaurant!
18. I don’t understand. (wǒ bú tài míng bai)
我不太明
。
白
This is a bit different than saying ‘听不懂’, which means you don’t understand the
spoken language. 明白 means ‘clear’ or ‘obvious’ and is a good way to explain you don’t
understand the person’s meaning.
Alternatively, you can also ask the following:
19. What do you mean? (shén me yì si)
什么意思？
This gives the speaker an opportunity to explain themselves more clearly. If you’re
feeling confident, you can also ask the speaker to explain in more detail by using the
following:
Can you explain a little more? I don’t really understand what you mean. (kě yǐ jiě shì yī
xià ma? Wǒ bú tài míng bai.)
可以解释一下吗？我不太明白。
请再说一
20. Please repeat that. (qǐng zài shuō yī biàn)
遍。
Once you start learning Chinese, you’ll definitely need to use this phrase to ask a
speaker to repeat certain phrases or sentences.
If you’re new to Chinese or are going to travel in China and want some essential
phrases, you can download our Essential Chinese Words flashcard set for the
Written
Chinese Dictionary mobile app
.

谢谢:
You might also be interested in our other article about how to be polite in Chinese,
10 Polite Chinese Expressions and How to Use Them
.

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