Useful Expressions To Learn

大家好！ (Hello Everybody!)

你吃了吗？ This was the first full Chinese sentence I learned. Literally translated, it means "Have you eaten yet?". People respond with "我吃了” or "我还没有吃”  meaning, respectively, “I have eaten” or “I have not eaten yet”. This expression is similar to "what's up?" in English, because its literally translation has very little to do with what it actually means. Asking people whether or not they've eaten is like asking "How are you?".

Idioms and fixed expressions can be very useful, because they're often some of the most common phrases in spoken Chinese and because they can help you memorize certain grammar patterns. For example, I memorized how to say "I have already eaten" a year before I learned how to form the past tense. Having the sample sentence already stored in my brain helped as a reference point when I moved on to the more advanced grammar.

So here are some of my favorite fixed expressions. They are very common in conversation, and usually come up in the first few lessons of any beginner's Chinese textbook:

你吃了吗？　Have you eaten yet?  (nǐ chī le mā?)
    This one will help you remember how to form past tense sentences. If you memorize this short one, you can substitute in other subjects, verbs, and verb phrases while maintaining the original structure and you will always be right. 
好久不见！     literally: good time not seen, i.e. It's been a while! (hǎo jiǔ bú jiàn)

对不起！　I'm sorry. (duì  bù  qǐ)
    This is useful in all kinds of situations--it can be an "excuse me for bumping into you" kind of sorry or a "I apologize for making fun of your nose" I'm sorry. 

没问题！　literally: don't have problem, i.e. No problem, or it's allright! (Méi  wèn  tí)
     What you say when someone apologizes to you. wenti, 问题，can mean problem or question, depending on the context. Also, you should know that mei is a shortened version of meiyou 没有，which means not having. Because this is a short, commonly used expression, the 没有 is shortened to just 没. This is also easier to say, because the extra syllable makes the sentence cumbersome. 

不好意思　literally: not good meaning, i.e. I'm uncomfortable/ embarrassed, excuse me.（bù hăo yì si)
     Useful when you do something silly or embarrassing, but where "I'm sorry" doesn't quite fit. My class used it a lot when they blanked and had to ask our teacher how to write a very simple character.

新年快乐！     literally: new year happy happy, or  Happy new year! (xīn nián kuài le)

祝你生日快乐! literally: wish you birthday happiness, or Happy birthday! (zhù  nǐ  shēng  rì  kuài  le)

我叫爱美　　I am called Amy. (wǒ  jiào  ài  měi )
         also: 你叫什么名字？you are called what name? ( nǐ  jiào  shén  me míng  zi)
    Once you have this pattern down, you can substitute in other subjects or question words to ask others their names, to introduce yourself and your friends, and to ask about other people. 

 Feel free to ask questions about these, or share whatever expressions you found useful in the comments box below. I'd love to learn a few new ones!
That's all I've got for now.
再见！(see you later!)
Sophie Sino