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Requests & offers 100
100
phrases
Asking a favour
10
能…吗 is the frame for almost every request: 能帮我一下吗, 能借我用一下吗. The 一下 is doing quiet work - it shrinks the favour to something brief and therefore easy to grant. 求你了 sits at the far end of the scale and is close to begging; among friends it is playful, with a stranger it would be strange.
Asking permission
10
可以 and 能 both ask permission and are largely interchangeable here, though 可以 leans on rules and 能 on ability. The pair worth memorising is the answer: 当然可以 grants it warmly, and 恐怕不行 - "I'm afraid not" - refuses without saying no, which is how a refusal is usually delivered.
Offering help
10
我来 - literally "I'll come" - means "let me do it", and 让我来 is the same offer made more insistently. Chinese offers of help are expected to be repeated: a first refusal is often politeness rather than a decision, so 别客气，说吧 - don't stand on ceremony, say it - is the follow-up that gets a real answer.
Accepting
10
那我就不客气了 - "then I won't stand on ceremony" - is the sentence that closes the offer-and-refusal dance. It acknowledges that you declined once for form's sake and are now accepting properly. Saying it makes you sound like someone who knows the rules, which is worth more than the favour itself.
Turning something down
10
Direct refusal is rare. 今天不方便 - "today isn't convenient" - blames the circumstances rather than the invitation, and 下次吧 postpones indefinitely without closing the door. 让我想想 is the softest of all and, like 我看看再说, usually means no. Reading them correctly is more useful than being able to say them.
Inviting
10
An invitation in Chinese usually names who pays: 我请你喝咖啡 is both an invitation and a statement that it is on you. 说定了 - "that's settled" - is the closing move and turns a vague plan into a real one, which matters because 什么时候方便 on its own can drift for weeks.
Making arrangements
10
临时有事 - "something has come up" - is the standard cancellation and asks no further questions; giving a detailed reason would be unusual. 能改天吗 tries to reschedule rather than cancel outright, and 提前告诉我 - tell me in advance - is the request that keeps this from happening twice.
Giving advice
10
不如试试 - "why not just try" - is the gentlest way to push someone towards a decision, and 最好早点去 - it would be best to go early - sounds like advice while functioning as an instruction. 随你便 is the one to handle with care: it withdraws the advice and, depending on tone, the goodwill with it.
Hurrying someone
10
快一点 is said far more freely in Chinese than "hurry up" is in English, and carries much less edge. 马上就好 - "almost ready" - is the answer, and it is as elastic as every other 马上 in the language. 我等着呢 adds gentle pressure by simply stating that you are waiting.
Being formal
10
劳驾 and 麻烦您 both mean "may I trouble you", and both open a request to a stranger with the register raised. 不敢当 is the reply to praise you feel is excessive - literally "I dare not accept" - and belongs to the same family as 哪里哪里. 恕我直言 warns that something blunt is coming.
Related categories
Greetings 100
Introductions 100
Numbers & time 100
Places & directions 100
Shopping 100
Eating & drinking 100
Getting around 100
Feelings & opinions 100
中文