Category: Words and Sentences

In this lesson, we are going to learn how to ask someone’s name.

你叫什么名字？Nǐ jiào shénme míngzì?

“You (are) called what name?”, to put it literally.

Here’s how it breaks down:

你 nǐ from 你好 means “you”, and 我 wǒ means “I”.

叫 jiào with the mouth part(口) on the left means “to call, to be called, to shout, to yell”.

什么 shénme means “what”.

名字 míngzì means “name”. In 名, again you see the mouth particle (口) on the lower right, on the upper left is the character for dim, darkness (夕): 名, to name oneself, to put oneself out of the dimness and into the light. 字 character, title, as in ancient China, it’s common to have an additional name, a title besides the commonly used one.

Here’s how you would respond:

我叫郭志娟。Wǒ jiào guōzhì juān.

“I (am) called Guo Zhi Juan.”

郭 Guō is the family name, and it comes first. This is a strong indication of an important factor of Chinese, or Asian culture: family, the collective, nation, comes before the individual.

志 zhì is the character chosen by this particular generation, and it is adapted to everyone’s name in this generation within the family: my brother and all my cousins on my father’s side have this character in their names.

Chinese people typically choose name characters that imply goodness, beauty, different types of virtues for their children’s names. 志, with a person(士: scholar, gentleman, soldier) on the upper side and a heart (心) on the lower side, means “purpose, will, determination”.

娟 juān is the second character in the given name(a given name could be one character, though more often than not it’s two), on the left side is 女, female; and on the right side, the upper side is mouth 口, and the lower side is moon 月. The character means “graceful, beautiful, moonlike”, and it is almost always a female’s name. There is a well-known line written by one of the most famous Chinese poets 苏轼: “千里共婵娟” which means “thousands of miles look up at the same moon”.

In the western world, you typically pick up a name for the new born baby from the names that have been there thousands of years. And many of the names—“Adam” and “Mary”— have a biblical background. In China, however, there do not (though you certainly could) choose from a “list of names”. You choose names from the wide range of Chinese characters. Technically, you could choose any character, or the combination of any two characters to name your child, though of course you generally choose good-meaning, nice-sounding characters instead of otherwise, popular male’s names could be 勇 (courage), 明 (smart, bright), 伟 (greatness)….and popular female’s name could be 春(spring), 霞 (sunset clouds), 菲 (fragrance)….

毛泽东 Máozédōng, arguably the most well known Chinese name in the world, follows the same rule. 毛 is the family name. 泽, with three drops of water (water radical 氵) on the left, could mean “marsh, swamp” or “to benefit”, 东 means “east”.

习近平 Xíjìnpíng，习xí, here a family name, means “to practice, to try”. It vividly illustrates this meaning by the two wings (丶㇀). It comes from the image of new birds—the fledglings—open their wings and learn to fly. 近 jìn means “close, to approach”, and 平 píng means “flat, equal, justice”. So the given name means “approaching justice” which gives you an idea of the parents’ expectation when they named their child.

So in this lesson we are learning to ask someone’s name:

—你叫什么名字? Nǐ jiào shénme míngzì?

—我叫郭志娟。你呢？Wǒ jiào guōzhì juān. Nǐ ne?

你呢？Nǐ ne? What about you? What’s your name?

This ends the second lesson. Have fun learning!

Here is the audio material for this lesson:

The ancient English word for greeting “Ho”, which “Hello” derives from, is a sound meant to attract attention. Chinese too has a word used for this purpose which also serves as a form of greeting: 喂 (wèi), it sounds much like the French word for “yes”, though for greetings this word is mostly used on phone instead of in-person, unless you want to be particularly rude.

The proper way to greet a person is to say 你好 Nǐ hǎo,which literally translates to “You Good”. 你 means “you”, and 好 means “good”. Though 好 could also mean “healthy, beautiful, kind, goodness, peace”. So there is not a little flattering in the first greetings of the Chinese: we are a generous race.

When you are greeted “你好”, the usual way is to greet back with the exact same word “你好”.

— 你好！Nǐ hǎo

— 你好！Nǐ hǎo

谢谢 Xièxiè, meaning thank you, and in certain contexts interestingly means, to apologize or to decline. The character has body (身) in it which reminds one of the Asian custom of taking a bow when expressing gratitude.

不客气 Bù kèqì, you are welcome, literally means “No guest air” or “don’t be a guest”.

Now we know how to say “thank you” and “you are welcome”.

— 谢谢! Xièxiè

— 不客气! Bù kèqì

对不起 Duìbùqǐ, sorry, literally means “facing (you) no rise”. It is again the taking of a bow. In the heavily hierarchy social form, to put oneself lower, to take a low bow is the way to say “sorry”. Or it’s the learning of humility, to admit one’s fault.

没关系Méiguānxì, it does not matter, literally means “no closed tie”, 关系, relations, closed connections. You have to give it to the Chinese for its straightforwardness(at least in some cases): no matter! It’s not like we are close relations.

Now we know how to say “Sorry” and “It does not matter” in Chinese.

— 对不起! Duìbùqǐ

— 没关系! Méiguānxì

再见 Zàijiàn, is very different from the English “Goodbye”, derived from the phrase “god be with you”, the Chinese simply say “again see” . 再 means again, and it could use before other verbs to mean again do something. 再吃一碗(米饭) (Have anohter bowl of rice). 见 means to see, the character derives from the drawing of an eye of a human.

Now we know how to say “Goodbye” in Chinese.

— 再见! Zàijiàn

— 再见! Zàijiàn

This ends your very first Chinese lesson. Have fun learning!

Here is the audio material for this lesson: