Basic Spoken Chinese – Lesson 5: 谢谢 xièxie, “thank you”

Listen and download Lesson 5 of Basic Spoken Chinese

Basic Spoken Chinese – Lesson 5: 谢谢 xièxie, “thank you”

Literally: “thank you”.

Examples:

1) 谢谢夸奖。
Xièxie kuājiǎng.

Thanks for the compliment.

2) 谢谢你的合作。
Xièxie nǐ de hézuò.

Thanks for cooperating.

3) 请原谅,耽误您时间了,谢谢!
Qǐng yuánliàng, dānwù nín shíjiān le, xièxie!

Please forgive us for holding you up. Thank you!

New words:

谢谢 xièxie (interj.): thanks; thank you e.g. 谢谢你的帮助 xièxie nǐ de bāngzhù (“thanks for your help”)

夸奖 kuājiǎng (v.): to praise; to compliment; to commend 老师夸奖他进步快 lǎoshī kuājiǎng tā jìnbù kuài (“the teacher praised him for his rapid progress”)

的 de (part.): (indicates that the previous word has possession of the next one, similar to English “’s” or “of” but with the position of possessor and possessee switched) e.g. 我的书 wǒ de shū (“my book”), 这本书是张小姐的 zhè běn shū shì Zhāng xiǎojiě de (“this book is Miss Zhang’s”), 他的房间 tā de fángjiān (“his room”), 这个房间是他的 zhège fángjiān shì tā de (“this room is his”), etc.

合作 hézuò (v.): to cooperate; to work together e.g. 我们合作得很好 wǒmen hézuò de hěn hǎo (“we worked well together”)

原谅 yuánliàng (v.): to forgive e.g. 我来晚了,请原谅 wǒ lái wǎn le, qǐng yuánliàng (“please excuse me for being late”)

耽误 dānwù (v.): to delay; to hold up; to waste (time) e.g. 别耽误我的时间 bié dānwù wǒ de shíjiān (“don’t waste my time”)

时间 shíjiān (n.): time e.g. 时间不等人 shíjiān bù děngrén (“time waits for no one”), 抓紧时间 zhuājǐn shíjiān (lit. “grip time tightly”, i.e. “get a move on; hurry up”), etc.

Did you know?

Polite expressions like 请 qǐng (“please”) and 谢谢 xièxie (“thank you”) are not usually used by Chinese people when talking with their friends and family. In fact, it is traditionally considered distancing to be too polite to the people closest to you. Saying please or thank you to your Chinese friend may be met with a 太客气了 tài kèqì le (“too polite”) or 太见外了 tài jiànwài le (lit. “too much treating-like-a-stranger”). Thus, in Chinese-speaking communities polite language is more commonly used when talking to strangers, although even then, it is not thought of as compulsory, since in modern China many people do not consider “manners” an important part of everyday life.

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