HEYGOW
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HEYGOW
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中文
Formal occasions 100
100
phrases
Formal greetings
10
Chinese has no grammatical honorifics, so politeness lives entirely in word choice, and this is where it starts: 您 for 你, 贵方 for your side, 敝 for mine. 略备薄酒 - I've prepared thin wine - belittles your own hospitality, which is exactly what courtesy requires.
Introductions and cards
10
敝姓王 - my humble surname is Wang - uses 敝, the self-deprecating prefix, and is the formal counterpart of 我姓王. 不知该如何称呼您 - I don't know how I should address you - is the safest opening when rank is unclear, and asking is better than guessing.
Speaking in a meeting
10
我先说两句 - let me say two sentences first - is how a senior person opens, and "two sentences" is never two. 这个问题会后再议 - we'll discuss that after the meeting - is the standard way to defer something without refusing it.
Negotiating
10
这是我们的底线 - this is our bottom line - should be said only once, because saying it twice proves it was not one. 我们原则上同意 - we agree in principle - is the same 原则上 you met in the hedging set, and it means the details can still undo the deal.
Letters and email
10
此致敬礼 is the fixed closing of a Chinese formal letter and is traditionally written across two lines, 此致 at the end of the text and 敬礼 on its own line. 顺祝商祺 is the business variant, and 敬启者 opens a letter to someone unnamed.
Formal thanks
10
受之有愧 - to receive it, I feel shame - is the formal way to accept something you feel you have not earned, and it is a compliment to the giver. 改日登门道谢 - another day I'll come to your door to thank you - promises a visit, which is the heaviest currency of thanks.
Formal apology
10
责任在我 - the responsibility rests with me - is four characters that do more than a paragraph of explanation, and refusing to say it is what makes apologies fail. 请您海涵 - please be as forbearing as the sea - is the classical register of asking forgiveness.
Making a formal request
10
若蒙应允，不胜感谢 - if I am granted your consent, my gratitude will be beyond measure - is the written register at its most formal, and 蒙 means to receive from above. 静候佳音 - quietly awaiting good news - closes a request without applying pressure.
Speeches and condolences
10
请节哀顺变 - please restrain your grief and accept the change - is the standard thing said to the bereaved in Chinese, and it is fixed: you do not improvise here. 百年好合 wishes a hundred years of harmony and belongs only at a wedding.
Closing formally
10
恕不远送 - forgive me for not seeing you far - is what a host says when stopping at the door, and it acknowledges the courtesy of escorting a guest even while declining to. 就此搁笔 - here I lay down the brush - ends a letter, and nothing else.
Related categories
Softening & hinting 100
Conversation flow 100
Set phrases & idioms 100
Four-character idioms 100
Telling a story 100
Arguing a case 100
Grumbling 100
Joking and irony 100
中文