Chinese (Mandarin)/Lesson 9

Lesson 9: 請問火車站在哪裡？

Dialogues

Dialogue 1

Traditional Chinese （濃濃開車中，碰到路人妙妙） 濃濃：不好意思，請問火車站在哪裡？ 妙妙：往前開，遇到紅綠燈右轉，它就在你的左手邊。 濃濃：這樣大約要花多久時間呢？ 妙妙：大概要花十分鐘。 濃濃：所以是往前開，紅綠燈右轉，車站在我的左邊，大概十分鐘囉？ 妙妙：是這樣沒錯。 濃濃：非常感謝你。 Simplified Chinese （浓浓开车中，碰到路人妙妙） 浓浓：不好意思，请问火车站在哪里？ 妙妙：往前开，遇到红绿灯右转，它就在你的左手边。 浓浓：这样大约要花多久时间呢？ 妙妙：大概要花十分钟。 浓浓：所以是往前开，红绿灯右转，车站在我的左边，大概十分钟​​啰？ 妙妙：是这样没错。 浓浓：非常感谢你。 Pinyin (Nóng Nóng: kāichē zhōng, pèngdào lùrén Miào Miào) Nóng Nóng: bùhǎoyìsi, qǐngwèn huǒchēzhàn zài nǎlǐ? Miào Miào: wǎngqián kāi yùdào hónglǜdēng yòuzhuǎn tā jiù zài nǐde zuǒshǒu bian. Nóng Nóng: zhèyàng dàyuē yào huā duōjiǔ shíjiān ne? Miào Miào: dàgài yào huā shífēn zhōng. Nóng Nóng: suǒyǐ shì wǎngqián kāi, hónglǜdēng yòuzhuǎn, chēzhàn zài wǒde zuǒbian, dàgài shífēn zhōng luo? Miào Miào: shì zhèyàng méicuò. Nóng Nóng: fēicháng gǎnxiè nǐ.

Vocabulary

Traditional	Simplified	Pinyin	English
不好意思	不好意思	bùhǎo yìsi	phrase - excuse me / sorry / to feel embarrassed
請	请	qǐng	verb - please, may (always an honorifics)
請問	请问	qǐng wèn	phrase - may I ask...
車	车	chē	noun - a vehicle, usually a car.
火車	火车	huǒ chē	noun - train
火車站	火车站	huǒchē zhàn	noun - train station
開車	开车	kāi chē	phrase - to drive a car
碰到/遇見	碰到/遇见	pèngdào/yùjiàn	verb - encounter
路人	路人	lùrén	noun - passerby
往前	往前	wǎng qián	- to move forwards
燈	灯	dēng	noun - light, lamp, a device for giving light
紅綠燈/信號燈	红绿灯/信號燈	hónglǜdēng/xìnhàodēng	noun - traffic light

Translation

(Nong Nong ran into a walker, Miao Miao, while driving)

Nong Nong: Excuse me, may I ask you where the train station is?

Miao Miao: Drive forward, turn right at the traffic light and it will be on your left.

Nong Nong: How long will it takes?

Miao Miao: About ten minutes.

Nong Nong: So drive forward, turn right at the traffic light, the station will be on my left, about ten minutes?

Miao Miao: That's right, very correct.

Nong Nong: Thank you very much.

Grammar

……在哪里？ / ……在哪裡？

The sentence means "where is ...?". In Chinese, we can use this phrase to ask something's location.

If we get to characters, the sentence would be like "... is where?", which is just like “……是什么”(literally ... is what) and “……是谁”(literally ... is who).

In spoken Chinese, it's also possible to attach an -r sound to the character "哪", therefore it changes to “……在哪儿？”