What you will be able to do
- Greet, thank, answer a thank-you and take your leave using only these six expressions.
- Choose between 你 and 您 according to who you are speaking to.
- Put 请 in front of a verb to turn an instruction into an invitation: 请进, 请坐, 请问.
Chinese words in this text can be activated to show a dictionary gloss.
Six expressions that open any conversation
nǐ hǎo — hello, literally you good. It works at any hour of the day, with anyone, on the phone or at a door. Both syllables are third tone, so it is said ní hǎo.
nín hǎo — the same greeting with the respectful nín in place of . Use it for a teacher, an older person, a customer, an official, or anyone you would address formally. It is never wrong, only more careful. Note that there is no standard plural: to greet a group, say nǐmen hǎo.
xièxie — thank you. Fourth tone then neutral: the second syllable is light and short, not a second xiè. Expand it freely — xièxie nǐ, xièxie nín, xièxie lǎoshī.
bú kèqi — the standard reply to , literally don't be formal. Here the first lesson pays off: kè is fourth tone, so becomes bú. búyòng xiè works the same way.
zàijiàn — goodbye, literally again see. Two fourth tones: two separate clean drops, not one long slide.
qǐng — please, or to invite. Put it in front of a verb and an instruction becomes an offer: qǐng jìn come in, qǐng zuò have a seat, qǐngwèn excuse me, may I ask. is the single most useful of the three, because it turns any interruption into a polite request.
A whole exchange
- ！ Nǐ hǎo!
- ！。 Nǐ hǎo! Qǐng zuò.
- 。 Xièxie.
- 。 Bú kèqi.
- ！ Zàijiàn!
- ！ Zàijiàn!
Six lines, and every word is in this lesson. Learn the exchange as a block rather than as six separate cards: the answer to should arrive without thinking.
How much politeness is the right amount
Between people who are close, Chinese conversation tends to be economical with please and thank you; thanking a family member for every small thing can read as distance rather than warmth. With strangers, shopkeepers, teachers and colleagues, is expected and is welcome. When you cannot tell which situation you are in, is the safe default — nobody minds being treated as the senior person in the room.
One habit worth building now: greet the person, then say what you want. Walking up to a counter and asking your question cold sounds abrupt in any language, and costs half a second.
How to work through it
The six expressionsread
Read the list once for meaning, then a second time out loud. Pay attention to the two places where the tone on the page is not the tone in the mouth: 你好 and 不客气.
Hello, thank you, goodbyevocabulary
Six cards. Learn 谢谢 and 不客气 as a pair, and 你好 and 您好 as a pair — in both cases the second card is only useful once you can tell when to reach for it instead of the first.
请 in front of a verbsentence
Build and say: 请进 qǐng jìn, 请坐 qǐng zuò, 请问 qǐngwèn, 请说 qǐng shuō. Then run the six-line exchange from the lesson twice, once in each role.
How are you, and how to answerquiz
你好吗？ Nǐ hǎo ma? is a yes/no question built with 吗, and the natural answer 我很好，谢谢。 Wǒ hěn hǎo, xièxie. needs 很 rather than 是. Eight items on the two patterns.
Greet three different peoplespeaking
Say the right greeting out loud for each: a classmate your own age, your teacher, and a shopkeeper you are about to ask a question. Then close each one with 谢谢 and 再见.