Learn how to apologize
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| Hēi , dàjiā hǎo , wǒ jiào Mǎ Yànrú .Hi everybody! I’m YanruMa. |
| Welcome to ChineseClass101.com’s “Sān fēnzhōng Hànyǔ”. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Chinese. |
| In the last lesson, we learned the phrase “Nǐ huì shuō Yīngyǔ ma?”. |
| "Do you speak English?" We mentioned the word qǐngwèn, which means "excuse me" in formal Chinese. But this isn’t the only way to say excuse me or I’m sorry in Chinese. You’ll have to use different words in different situations. |
| Don’t worry. It will be very easy. |
| In this lesson we’re going to learn how to make a proper apology in Chinese. |
| The expression qǐngwèn that we learned in the last lesson is used when asking a question. For example: |
| “Qǐngwèn , Tiānānmén zài nǎr” ? |
| "Excuse me, where is Tiānānmén？ |
| [slowly] “Qǐngwèn , Tiānānmén zài nǎr”? |
| The first word is Qǐngwèn or excuse me. |
| Then comes a place. In this case Tiananmen. |
| next we have zài . This is a word like the English “located.” |
| Last we have nǎr, which means “where”. |
| All together, it means something like, excuse me Tiananmen located where? |
| Qǐngwèn , Tiānānmén zài nǎr” ? |
| An informal way to say "excuse me" is bù hǎo yìsi |
| [slowly] bù hǎo yìsi . |
| bù we have seen before, and means something like “not” |
| Next we have hǎo, which means good. |
| Finally we have yìsi, which means thought. |
| All together, we get something that means “not good thought” but which perhaps could be translated as “It is thoughtless of me.” |
| bù hǎo yìsi |
| we can use bù hǎo yìsi when asking a question, or when apologizing. |
| All of these phrases can be used for either “excuse me” or “I’m sorry.” But if you really want to apologize for something, it might be better to use a different phrase. |
| That phrase is Duì bu qǐ. It means “I am sorry.” and can be used in both formal and informal situations. |
| [slowly]Duì bu qǐ. |
| This is so common that you should learn it all as one phrase, and not worry about breaking it down. |
| Duì bu qǐ. |
| This is used as often as the phrase xièxiè is to show appreciation. |
| Now it’s time for Yanru’s Tips. |
| Please remember that in Chinese if you accidentally bump into someone, we don’t say “Excuse me”, qǐngwèn. Instead say Duì bu qǐ, Or, “I am sorry” This tells people that you are really sorry. |
| Are you are able to count in Chinese? In the next lesson we will learn the numbers in Chinese from one to ten! |
| I'll be waiting for you in our next Sān fēnzhōng Hànyǔ lesson. |
| Zài jiàn! |
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