Taiwanese Mandarin Survival Phrases Lesson 24: Bottled Water, Please! |
In this lesson, you will learn expressions related to buying bottles of water and asking for no ice. |
In Chinese, if you want to ask for bottled water, you can say 請給我一瓶水(Qǐng gěi wǒ yī píng shuǐ). In English, this is “Please give me one bottle of water.” |
Let’s break it down by tone: |
請(qǐng), is third tone, the falling-rising tone. |
給(gěi), is also third tone, the falling-rising tone. |
我(wǒ), is again third tone, the falling-rising tone. |
一(yī), is first tone, the flat tone. |
瓶(píng) is second tone, the rising tone |
水(shuǐ) is third tone, the falling-rising tone |
Remember that "一"(yī) is the fourth tone before a non-fourth tone word, so “一瓶” is pronounced “yì píng.” |
Also note that we had three third tones at the beginning. This means the middle third tone becomes a second, rising tone. |
Let’s break it down by meaning: |
請(qǐng) means "please." |
給(gěi) means "to give." |
我(wǒ) means "me" or "I." |
一(yī) means "one." |
瓶(píng) means "bottle." |
水(shuǐ) means "water." |
Altogether, we have 請給我一瓶水(Qǐng géi wǒ yì píng shuǐ). |
Listen again, one more time, slowly: |
[Slow] 請給我一瓶水(Qǐng géi wǒ yì píng shuǐ). |
[Normal] 請給我一瓶水(Qǐng géi wǒ yì píng shuǐ). |
In Chinese, if you want to ask for two water bottles, you simply change “one," 一(yī), with the number "two" which is 兩(liǎng). |
兩(liǎng), meaning "two,” is in third tone, the falling-rising tone. Together “Please give me two bottles of water” is 請給我兩瓶水(Qǐng géi wó liǎng píng shuǐ). |
In Chinese, the phrase “no ice please” is 不要冰塊(Bú yào bīng kuài). |
Let’s break it down by tone: |
不(bù) is in second tone, the rising tone. |
要(yào) is in fourth tone, the falling tone. |
冰(bīng) is in first tone, the flat tone. |
Remember 不(bù) is usually the fourth, falling tone, but because it precedes 要(yào) which is also fourth tone, it changes to second tone. |
Let’s break it down by meaning: |
不(bù) means "no." |
要(yào) means "to want" or "to need" |
冰(bīng) means "ice" |
塊(kuài) is a word that can mean "pieces" or "chunks.” |
Literally, this phrase means "no want ice pieces" but can be translated as "I don’t want ice" or "no ice please.” |
Altogether, we have 不要冰塊(Bú yào bīng kuài). |
Listen again, one more time, slowly: |
[Slow] 不要冰塊(Bú yào bīng kuài). |
[Normal] 不要冰塊(Bú yào bīng kuài). |
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