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| Hey guys, in today’s lesson, we will cover phrases used for apologizing. Now as you haven’t quite mastered Chinese, it’s probably very prudent to go over some phrases for apologizing because they might come in handy. You are probably going to have to apologize for your Chinese, your rudeness, your table manners, things like that. In Chinese, there are two ways to say I am sorry. They have certainly different meanings and they are used in slightly different ways but both of them kind of mean I am sorry or excuse me. We will go over both of them and then I will try to explain in different ways in which they are used. The first one is 对不起 。(Duì bu qǐ.), one more time, 对不起 。(Duì bu qǐ.). All right, we will do it slower, 对不起 。(Duì bu qǐ.). All right, let’s break this down syllable by syllable. The first one is fourth tone, falling tone 对(duì), the second, by itself, is fourth tone falling tone, but in this combination it has no tone, 不(bu); and the third one is the falling, rising tone, that third tone 起 (qǐ). So it’s 对不起 。(Duì bu qǐ.). All right one last time, 对不起 。(Duì bu qǐ.). Now remember, this means sorry. The second one, it also means sorry but it has kind of a different flavor to it. This one is 不好意思。(Bù hǎo yì si.), one more time 不好意思。(Bù hǎo yì si.). Let’s try it once slowly, 不好意思。(Bù hǎo yì si.). All right, the first tone is fourth tone, falling tone 不(bù) then the falling rising tone, third tone 好(hǎo) and then 意(yì) the falling tone, fourth tone 意(yì) and then the last one is the flat tone, the first tone by itself, but in this combination it has no tone, 思(si). 不好意思。(Bù hǎo yì si.). All right, so now let’s go over the differences in the meaning. 对不起 。(Duì bu qǐ.) quite literally means sorry whereas 不好意思。(Bù hǎo yì si.) syllable by syllable means 不(bù) not, 好(hǎo) good and then 意思(yì si) it means meaning which kind of means I feel bad, I feel uncomfortable, okay. So we use 对不起 。(Duì bu qǐ.) in situations where we have done something wrong and we want to say I am sorry. I step on my friend’s foot and I go 对不起 。(Duì bu qǐ.), 对不起 。(Duì bu qǐ.), 对不起 。(Duì bu qǐ.), I am sorry, I am sorry, I am sorry but then, I might also say 不好意思。(Bù hǎo yì si.). You know I stepped on somebody’s foot and I feel bad, 不好意思。(Bù hǎo yì si.), but 对不起 。(Duì bu qǐ.) might be more natural. However if I were tapping someone on the shoulder and I wanted to ask a question, you know. You are in the street and you want to ask directions. You tap someone on the shoulder and you would never say 对不起 。(Duì bu qǐ.) because you did nothing wrong. You never, you haven’t hurt them, you haven’t kicked them, you haven’t touched them because you have done nothing wrong. You haven’t hurt them anyway. So you don’t need to say you are sorry. You just want to say excuse me, I feel bad for asking you this but – so you would tap someone on the shoulder and say 不好意思。(Bù hǎo yì si.). The last time you might use this is maybe you are in the train and you are trying to push through a crowd of people. Most Chinese people would not say anything. They would just push. You know, you go, you fit your hand in between the crevices and you just sort of separate people gently but if you wanted to be really polite, you wanted to sort of instill the Chinese with a sense of manners, you might want to say 对不起 。(Duì bu qǐ.). You push people apart and say 对不起 。(Duì bu qǐ.). Now let’s say somebody steps on your foot and you know it hurt a little bit and they say 对不起 。(Duì bu qǐ.) and you want to say, oh no problem, it’s okay. Usually people respond with 没问题 (Méi wèn tí.). It’s a very, very casual way of saying no problem and it’s a response that most people use. They say 没问题 (Méi wèn tí.). 没(méi), second rising tone, 问(wèn), fourth falling tone and 题(tí), second rising tone again, 没问题 (Méi wèn tí.). Literally it means no problem 没问题 (Méi wèn tí.). You can use this whenever somebody says I am sorry. All right, to close our today’s lesson, we’d like you to practice what we’ve just learned. I will provide you with the 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)! I am sorry, it’s used when you’ve done something wrong or maybe if you want to get through crowd. 对不起 。(Duì bu qǐ.), I feel bad, it also means I am sorry, 不好意思。(Bù hǎo yì si.). To respond to somebody when they say they are sorry to you. It literally means, no problem, 没问题 (Méi wèn tí.) . |
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