People & relationships 100

100 phrases

Getting to know someone10 聊得很投机 - to talk and click - is the phrase for a conversation that went unexpectedly well, and 投机 here means matching, not speculation. 好像在哪见过 - I think we've met somewhere - is the opening you need when a face is familiar and a name is not.
Friendship10 讲义气 - to have a sense of loyalty - is high praise and has no single English word: it means standing by people at cost to yourself. 我们合得来 says two people fit, and 最近有点疏远 - we've drifted a bit lately - names something friendships rarely say out loud.
Doing each other favours10 人情 is the debt created by a favour - not money, but an obligation that is remembered and eventually returned. 我欠他一个人情 - I owe him one - is a real accounting in Chinese social life. 举手之劳 - the effort of raising a hand - is how you wave that debt away.
Gifts10 太贵重了吧 - this is too valuable - is the expected first response to a gift, and refusing once before accepting is the polite shape. 这是他的心意 - this is his heart's intention - explains that the thought matters more than the object, which is why 收下吧 usually wins.
Get-togethers10 做东 - to "act as the east" - means to host and pay, from the old seating arrangement where the host sat on the east side. 下次谁做东 asks who is treating next. 我先走一步 - I'll leave one step ahead - is the polite way to be the first to go.
Complimenting10 我还差得远 - I'm still far off - is the standard reply to praise, and deflecting a compliment is not false modesty here but the expected second half of the exchange. 你太夸张了 says you're exaggerating, and 向你学习 - I'll learn from you - returns the compliment upward.
Making up10 我先低头 - I'll lower my head first - is the phrase for being the one who backs down, and it names something apologies in other languages leave implicit: someone has to go first. 过去的就算了 lets the past count as settled, which is the actual end of a quarrel.
Falling out10 各让一步 - each side gives one step - is the shape a Chinese resolution usually takes, and it assumes neither party was wholly right. 别把话说重了 warns against words that land too hard, and 私下说比较好 - better said in private - protects everyone's face.
Family and relatives10 叔叔 is your father's younger brother specifically - Chinese kinship terms encode which side of the family and which birth order, and 我叫他叔叔 therefore says more than "I call him uncle". 老家 is the ancestral home you return to, not simply where you were born.
Relationships10 表白 - to declare feelings - is a distinct event in Chinese dating, not a gradual drift: there is a moment when it is said. 相亲 is the arranged meeting with marriage in view, still common and not considered old-fashioned. 感情要慢慢来 closes with the gentler view.

中文

Free · No sign-up · Infinite repeat

About Privacy Contact Vocabulary lists Your study record ASMR Workout music