you feel satisfied with your performance, move on to Notes.
Lily:Please sit down! Have you had your meal yet?
Qǐng zuò! Nǐ chī le ma?
请 坐! 你 吃了 吗?
Jack:Yes, I have.
Wǒ chī le.
我 吃了。
Lily:Would you like to have some tea or coffee?
Nǐ hē chá hái shì kā fēi?
你喝 茶 还 是 咖啡？
Jack:I would like to have some tea.
Wǒ hē chá.
我 喝 茶。
Lily:Please enjoy your tea.
Qǐng hē chá.
请 喝 茶。
Jack:Thank you!
Xiè xie!
谢 谢!
Lily:You’re welcome.
Bú kè qì.
不 客气。
| 坐 zuò | sit down |
| 吃 chī | eat |
| 吃了 chī le | ate |
| 喝 hē | drink |
| 茶 chá | tea |
| 还是 hái shì | or |
| 咖啡 kā fēi | coffee |
| 谢谢 xiè xie | thank you |
| 不客气 bú kè qì | you’re welcome |
Notes 注 释
➊ “Please,” a common polite word, is frequently used in English. And its Chinese synonym, 请 qǐng, is also quite often spoken by Chinese. 请 Qǐng is used in all polite requests in Chinese. Usually, a second verb follows the word 请 qǐng. As you see in the dialog, zuò and hē are verbs put after “qǐng”: 请坐 qǐng zuò (please sit down), 请喝 qǐng hē (please have a drink). You will learn more in Extend Your Vocabulary.
➋ Note that Chinese verbs don’t have different tenses. Instead, other ancillary words are added together with the verb to express the different verb tense. For example, the verb “eat” equates to “吃 chī” which is the present tense, but “ate” would be “吃了 chī le” which is the past tense. You can see that 了 le is an ancillary word.
Here are key sentences from the dialog that you’ll want to memorize. They will be especially useful in your daily conversations.
Qǐng zuò!
请 坐! (Please sit down!)
Qǐng hē chá.
请 喝 茶。(Please have some tea.)
Nǐ chī le ma?
你吃了吗? (Have you had your meal yet?)
Here, we’ll learn a few more phrases related to 请 qǐng, because 请 qǐng is a word that people use almost every day. You may want to practice these with your family, friends or colleagues.
| Qǐng kàn请看Please look | Qǐng tīng请听Please listen | Qǐng dú请读Please read | Qǐng shuō请说Please speak |
Practice and Review 练 习 与 复 习
Now let’s check your understanding of what you have learned so far. Work through the following exercises. When you finish, compare your work with the Answer Key, available online.
A. Substitutions 替换练习
How do you use the words in the section Extend Your Vocabulary? I will show you here. The numbered sentences are basic sentences which are followed by a few extended sentences containing the words we looked at in Extend Your Vocabulary and (as we move further along) some words you will have learned in earlier chapters. Go ahead and give it a try!
Wǒ hěn hǎo.
1. 我 很好。
Lì li fēi cháng hǎo.
Jié kè hǎo jí le!
Nǐ tài hǎo le!
Qǐng jìn!
2. 请 进!
Qǐng kàn!
Qǐng tīng!
