Chinese For Dummies (20 page)

nán péngyǒu
男朋友
(nahn puhng-yo) (
boyfriend
)

nǚ péngyǒu
女朋友
(nyew pung-yo) (
girlfriend
)

tàitai
太太
(tye-tye)
(
wife
)

tóngshì
同事
(toong-shir) (
colleague
)

tóngwū
同屋
(toong-woo) (
roommate
)

tóngxué
同学
(
同學
) (toong-shweh) (
classmate
)

wǒde péngyǒu
我的朋友
(waw-duh puhng-yo) (
my friend
)

zhàngfu
丈夫
(jahng-foo) (
husband
)

When introducing two people to each other, always introduce the one with the lower social status and/or age to the person with the higher social status. The Chinese consider this progression polite.

Asking people for their names

Many situations call for informal greetings like
Wǒ jiào Sarah. Nǐ ne?
我叫
Sarah.
你呢
? (waw jyaow Sarah. nee nuh?) (
My name is Sarah. And yours?
) or
Nǐ jiào shénme míngzi?
你叫什么名字
? (
你叫甚麼名字
?) (nee jyaow shummuh meeng-dzuh?) (
What's your name?
), but you can show a greater level of politeness and respect by asking
Nín guì xìng?
您贵姓
? (
您貴姓
?) (neeng gway sheeng?) (Literally:
What's your honorable surname?
) But if you're asking this question of someone who's younger than you or lower in social status, you can easily just say
Nǐ jiào shénme míngzi?
你叫什么名字
? (
你叫甚麼名字
?) (nee jyaow shummah meeng-dzuh?) (
What's your name?
) Even though
míngzi
usually means
given name,
asking this question may elicit an answer of first and last name. Keep practicing these different opening lines to ask who people are, and you're bound to make friends quickly (or you're at least bound to get to know a lot of Chinese names).

If someone asks you
Nín guì xìng?,
don't refer to yourself with the honorific
guì
when you answer. Your new acquaintance would consider you too boastful. Such a response is like saying “My esteemed family name is Smith.” The best way to answer is to say
Wǒ xìng Smith.
我姓
Smith. (waw sheeng Smith.) (
My family name is Smith.
)

If a guy tells you his name in Chinese, you can be sure the first syllable he utters will be his surname, not his given name. So if he says his name is
Lǐ Shìmín,
for example, his family name is
Lǐ
and his given name is
Shìmín.
You should keep referring to him as
Lǐ Shìmín
(rather than just
Shìmín
) until you become really good friends. If you want to address him as
Xiānshēng
先生
(shyan-shuhng) (
Mr.
), or if you're addressing a female as
Xiǎojiě
小姐
(shyaow-jyeh) (
Miss
) or
Tàitài
太太
(tye-tye) (
Mrs.
), you put that title after his or her last name and say
Lǐ Xiānshēng
or
Lǐ Xiǎojiě.
Even though the Chinese language has words for
Mr., Miss,
and
Mrs.,
it has no equivalent term for
Ms.
At least not yet.