Learn how to say "you're welcome"
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| Michael: Hey guys! Before, we talked about how to say thank you. Now we are going to talk about reciprocating. If you do something nice and somebody says thank you to you 谢谢(Xiè xie)!, what do you say to them? You don’t want to be caught at a loss of words. So today, our first phrase is going to be you’re welcome. The more polite way to say this is 不用谢(Bú yòng xiè). The tones for this are second tone 不(bú), normally 不(bù) is fourth tone but here it is followed by another fourth tone 用(yòng), so it becomes second tone, the rising tone 不(bú). Next is 用(yòng), fourth tone 用(yòng) and last 谢(xiè) fourth tone 谢(xiè). 不用谢(bú yòng xiè). Literally this means no use thank you. 不(bù) means no, 用(yòng) means to use and 谢(xiè) is from 谢谢(Xiè xie), it means thank you. So literally no use thank you but this comes out to mean there is no need for thanks. Somebody says thank you to you and you say there is no need for thanks, 不用谢(Bú yòng xiè)!. Now a more casual way to say this is to say 没事(Méi shì)!. The tones for this are second tone, the rising tone没(méi) and then fourth tone, the falling tone事(shì), 没事(Méi shì) . 没(méi) means no or to not have and 事(shì) means business or a thing like an action, an intangible thing as opposed to a thing that you could hold. So 没事(Méi shì) means no thing or it’s nothing. 没事(Méi shì) is used sometimes when people ask you what you are thinking about or do you have a problem right now, is there something wrong and you can say 没事(Méi shì)!, it means there is nothing, don’t worry about it. But also in this lesson, as we are saying, when somebody says thank you to you, you can say 没事(Méi shì)!, it’s nothing, 没事(Méi shì)!. Another word to say you are welcome is to say, don’t be polite, 不客气(Bú kè qi). The tones for this are second tone 不(bú) fourth tone 客(kè) and no tone 气(qi). Like I said before 不 (bù) normally is fourth tone but when followed by another fourth tone, it becomes second tone. So we have 不客气(Bú kè qi). And again as I said before 不(bù) means no, 客气(kè qi) means politeness or to be polite, courtesy, 不客气(Bú kè qi) means don’t be polite, no need for courtesy. So somebody says thank you and you say 不客气(Bú kè qi) there is no need to be polite. All three of these forms of you’re welcome are used very commonly, although 没事(Méi shì) is the most casual, the difference in politeness is not very large. So I wouldn’t worry too much about which one you use. So let’s do some examples. You open the door for somebody when they are coming out of the store and they say 谢谢(Xiè xie)!. Now a lot of people would say 没事(Méi shì)! and it’s very casual but if you wanted to be nice and in some ways make them smile, you would say 不用谢(Bú yòng xiè)! or 不客气(Bú kè qi)!. These are more polite but it seems a lot nicer. In some ways, it feels a lot nicer to have someone be polite to you in such a casual circumstance. The person says to you 谢谢(Xiè xie)!. They will smile because you are being very courteous and it feels nice to have that level of courtesy. Let’s look at another situation. You are out with your friends. One of your friend smokes and you pull out a lighter and you light a cigarette, he will say 谢谢啊(Xiè xie a)! and you will say 没事(Méi shì)!, totally casual, totally cool. It seems like it was nothing but let’s say it was an important person, an older person, same situation. They pull out a cigarette, you light it and they say 谢谢你啊(Xiè xie nǐ a)!. In this kind of situation, it would probably be better to say 不客气(Bú kè qi)! or 不用谢(Bú yòng xiè)!, it’s much more courteous this way and they are older than you, maybe of higher status and so you could try to be courteous. With your friends, 没事(Méi shì) is great. It’s casual, it’s cool. With older people, maybe casual and cool aren’t the best thing. Now let’s take a look at 没事(Méi shì) really quickly. In Beijing dialect, often Rs are added on to the ends of words and so 没事(Méi shì) has become 没事儿(Méi shìr), but this has become popular all over China. All around China, people are saying 没事儿(Méi shìr). It’s not just limited to the Beijing area. The textbook way of saying it is 没事(Méi shì), but many people all over China say 没事儿(Méi shìr) and if you say 没事儿(Méi shìr) you may sound more fluent and more Chinese and your friends will smile. |
| All right, to close our today’s lesson, we’d like you to practice what we’ve just learned. I will provide you with an English equivalent of a phrase and you are responsible for shouting it out loud. You will have a few seconds before I give you the answer. So 加油(Jiā yóu)! You are welcome, there is no need for thanks, 不用谢(Bú yòng xiè). The most casual way of you are welcome, it’s nothing, 没事(Méi shì). You are welcome, don’t be courteous, 不客气(Bú kè qi). |
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