Learn how to say, "Bottled water, please"
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| 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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