What you will be able to do
- Announce a plan with 打算 and place the destination before the verb of travel.
- Book with 订 using 张 for a ticket and 个 or 间 for a room.
- Describe a ticket or a train with a 的 phrase in front of the noun: 去北京的机票.
- Distinguish 接 from 送, and use 一…就… for what you will do on arrival.
本文中的中文词语都可以激活，查看词典释义。
Ticket, room, passport
Saying what you intend to do
dǎsuàn is to plan, to intend, and it takes a whole clause after it.
- 。 Wǒ dǎsuàn xià ge yuè qù Shànghǎi lǚyóu. — I plan to travel to Shanghai next month.
- ？ Nǐ dǎsuàn zhù jǐ tiān? — How many days are you planning to stay?
Compare the three words that sit near it. xiǎng is would like, a wish. yào is am going to, closer to a decision already taken. is the middle ground: a plan that exists but is not yet an act. Notice too that the destination comes before the verb of travelling — , not .
Booking
dìng is to book, to reserve, and it needs the right measure word behind it.
- 。 Wǒ xiǎng dìng liǎng zhāng qù Běijīng de jīpiào. — zhāng counts flat things: tickets, tables, sheets of paper.
- 。 Wǒ dìng le yí ge fángjiān. — jiān is also used for rooms: .
- ？ Yǒu méiyǒu bā hào de piào? — Any tickets for the eighth?
is worth taking apart. Everything in front of describes the noun behind it, so the phrase is a Beijing-going ticket. The same frame builds dào Shànghǎi de huǒchē and míngtiān zǎoshang de fēijī. English keeps this material after the noun; Chinese always puts it in front.
At the hotel
- 。 Qǐng gěi wǒ kàn yíxià nín de hùzhào. — the sentence the desk will say to you.
- 。 Wǒ zhù sān tiān. — I am staying three days. The duration follows the verb, with nothing between them.
- ？ Fángjiān li yǒu kōngtiáo ma? — li marks the inside of a place and comes after the noun, not before it.
- ？ Zǎofàn jǐ diǎn kāishǐ?
- 。 Wǒ míngtiān shàngwǔ tuìfáng. — tuìfáng is to check out.
xíngli is luggage, with a neutral second syllable. Its measure word is jiàn: .
and : two directions, not two politenesses
- jiē — to go and collect someone: 。 Wǒ qù jīchǎng jiē nǐ.
- sòng — to accompany someone on their way out: 。 Wǒ sòng nǐ qù jīchǎng.
Neither is jiàn. is simply to see, to meet, and it says nothing about who travelled to whom. If a Chinese friend offers , they are telling you they will be standing at the arrivals gate.
The sentence to send before you land
…… yī…jiù… links two events with no gap between them: as soon as A, then B.
- 。 Wǒ yí dào jiù gěi nǐ dǎ diànhuà. — I will call you the moment I arrive. is fourth tone, so becomes yí.
- 。 Tā yí xià fēijī jiù gěi jiā li fā le xiāoxi.
Both halves keep their own subject if the subjects differ, and stays glued to the front of the second verb — never at the head of the clause.
How to work through it
Plan, book, stay, be metread
Read the whole lesson once, then close it and name the four transactions in order with one Chinese verb each. If a verb does not come, that is the section to reread.
Ten words for a journeyvocabulary
Attach a measure word to each countable card as you learn it: 一张机票, 一个房间, 两件行李, 一本护照. A noun learned without its measure word is a noun you cannot yet order.
Everything in front of the nounsentence
Build six noun phrases with 的 and say them: a ticket to Beijing, the train to Shanghai, tomorrow morning’s flight, a room with a window, the friend who came yesterday, the hotel near the station.
As soon as I arrivequiz
Ten items. Five join two events with 一…就…, checking that 就 sits in front of the second verb; five build a 的 phrase in front of a noun rather than after it.
Book a room out loudspeaking
Run the exchange twice, once per role: 你好，我想订一个房间。 / 您住几天？ / 三天。 / 请给我看一下您的护照。 / 给您。 / 早饭七点开始，房间在三楼。 / 谢谢。 Then add a sentence saying you will call as soon as you arrive.