Thursday, 3 April 2008

Inactive for a while

The Mandarin Word of the Day blog will be inactive for a while. If there are any subjects you'd like to see covered in the future then send an email to mandarinwordoftheday.

Our email address is a gmail.com account.

We will be back one day, but for now, good luck and keep studying.

Tuesday, 25 March 2008

淋浴 - lín yù – shower


The first character is 淋, lín meaning to pour. It is pronounced lin with a 2nd or rising tone.

The second character is 浴, yù meaning to bath or bathe. It is pronounced you also with a 4th or falling tone. We learnt this character yesterday in the word 沐浴 - mù yù meaning bath

Together these characters mean a shower.

Monday, 24 March 2008

沐浴 - mù yù – bath


The first character is 沐, mù meaning to wash. It is pronounced moo with a 4th or falling tone.

The second character is 浴, yù meaning to bath or bathe. It is pronounced you also with a 4th or falling tone.

Together they mean a bath.

Sunday, 23 March 2008

退房 - tuì fáng – check out


Having already learned about checking in ( 報到 – bào dào – check-in ), we need to learn about checking out.

The first character is 退, tuì meaning to withdraw from. It is pronounced tway with a 4th or falling tone.

The second character is one we already know, 房 fáng meaning room. We have seen this in 单人房 – dān rén fáng – single room and 房間 - fáng jiān –room , as well as 双人房 – shuāng rén fáng – double room and 普通房 – pǔ tōng fáng – standard room.

It is pronounced fang with a 2nd or rising tone.

Saturday, 22 March 2008

電梯 - diàn tī – elevator


The first character is 電, diàn meaning electricity or electric. It is pronounced dee-yen with a 4th or falling tone.

The second character is 梯, tī meaning stairs. It is pronounced tea with a 1st or high, level tone.

An elevator is literally “electric stairs”.

Friday, 21 March 2008

行李 – xíng lǐ - luggage


The characters 行李, xíng lǐ mean luggage.

xíng is pronounced shing with a 2nd or rising tone.

lǐ is pronounced lee with a 3rd or falling and rising tone.

A useful phrase is 我的行李找不到, wǒ de xíng lǐ zhǎo bù dào, which means “I’ve lost my luggage.”

Thursday, 20 March 2008

報到 – bào dào – check-in



The first character of today’s word is 報, bào means to announce or report. It also somewhat confusingly, means a newspaper.

The second character 到, dào means to arrive.

The sense of the words in this case is “to announce one’s arrival” which in a hotel setting is exactly what you do when you check-in.

bào is pronounced like the English word bough, with a 4th or falling tone.

dào is pronounced like dow in the word endow, also with a 4th or falling tone.

Wednesday, 19 March 2008

押金 - yā jīn - deposit


The first character of today’s word 押, yā means to give something as security for something else. It is pronounced yah with a 1st or high, level tone.

The second character 金, jīn means money. It is pronounced like the word gin, also with a 1st or high level tone.

Together the meaning is clear, a deposit.

Tuesday, 18 March 2008

預定 - yù ding – reservation


Today’s word is 預定, yù dìng meaning a reservation.

The first character 預, yù means in advance or before. It is pronounced like the English word “you”, with a 4th or falling tone.

The second character is 定, dìng meaning to book, as in booking a seat, a place or in this case a hotel room. It is pronounced ding with a 4th or falling tone.

The phrase 我要訂房間, Wǒ yào dìng fáng jiān means “I want to book a room”.

Sunday, 16 March 2008

普通房 – pǔ tōng fáng – standard room


Today’s word is 普通房 – pǔ tōng fáng meaning a room with a shared bathroom.

The first character 普, pǔ means general or universal. It is pronounced poo with a 3rd or falling and rising tone.

The second one 通, tōng means common. It is pronounced tong with a 1st or high, level tone.

Together 普通, pǔ tōng means ordinary or standard or normal.

The third character is 房, fáng meaning a room, or a bedroom. It is pronounced fang with a 2nd or rising tone.

If you are traveling in China hotels with 3 stars or above will have a private bathroom.