12+ Extremely Useful Mandarin Phrases for Traveling in Taiwan - Taiwan Obsessed (2024)

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A little bit of Mandarin (Chinese) will go a long way in Taiwan. Bust out a phrase or two, and the locals will not only appreciate but seriously praise you for it.

I’ve been learning Taiwanese Mandarin, including how to read and type traditional Chinese characters, on and off since I first moved to Taiwan over 15 years ago. I’m still far from fluent, but I can get by. My wife is Taiwanese, kids go to a Mandarin immersion school in Canada, and we speak some Chinese at home.

In this article, I’ve carefully selected 12 extremely useful phrases and sentence patterns for traveling in Taiwan. These patterns can be used to make hundreds of sentences in Mandarin simply by inserting different vocabulary.

I’ll also give you some tips for pronunciation, tones, best Mandarin apps, and at the end, a list of even more useful words, phrases, questions, and responses.

In total, you’ll be learning over 100 Mandarin words in this article. Get your notebook ready!

Chinese Phrases Cheat Sheet

Here’s a quick summary of the 12 phrases / terms / patterns I’m going to teach you in this article. Words in parentheses can be replaced.

I’ll explain each of these in much greater detail in the article.

To learn more about Mandarin and Taiwanese from an academic perspective, see my Taiwanese language guide.

How to Pronounce Mandarin Sounds

In this article, I’ll be typing Mandarin words in pinyin, for example “nǐ hǎo” and providing the traditional Chinese characters (as used in Taiwan).

Pinyin is the transliteration system used in China, so most Taiwanese don’t know how to use it. Taiwan has their own system, called zhuyin or “Bopomofo”, but it is harder for English speakers to learn. So don’t ask Taiwanese to read or write something for you in pinyin!

Before you can properly say any Mandarin words, you have to learn how to pronounce each sound in pinyin. Pinyin uses the roman alphabet, so it’s quite easy. There are a few tricky sounds, but you can learn it in 15 minutes.

I suggest you start by watching this pinyin pronunciation video. If you can’t get the sounds right first, there’s no point in trying to read any words in this article.

Another tip: for all the phrases I’ll introduce in this article, copy-paste the Mandarin characters to GoogleTranslate then click the speaker icon to hear how they should sound.

Mandarin Tones

Mastering the sounds of Chinese is the easy part. The more difficult step for most of us is the tones.

Every character in Mandarin is one syllable, and each syllable/character has one of five tones. These are indicated with a symbol above the vowel.

• First tone (mā) sounds high pitched
• Second tone (má) sounds rising
• Third tone (mǎ) starts deep, falls even deeper, the rises a little
• Fourth tone (mà) falls abruptly
• Neutral tone (ma) sounds neutral

If you get your tones wrong (and trust me, you will), it can totally change the meaning of your words. In the above examples, ma means: mother, hemp, horse, scold, or it’s a question particle.

Even with context in the conversation, if you mess up one or two tones, local people’s ears will simply turn off and they will have no idea what you are trying to say. They may even think you’re speaking English and that’s why they can’t understand you.

You can never practice tones enough. Here’s a quick tones introduction and another that goes deeper.

Mandarin Resources while Traveling

I highly recommend downloading GoogleTranslate before your trip. You can use the app to look up words, type in something and have it read out for people to hear, record what people are saying and translate for you, or to scan menus for instant translation on the screen.

Some people prefer Naver Papago, which has the same functions but with a focus on Asian languages, so it is sometimes more accurate than GoogleTranslate. Another good one is Pleco, which is more like an English / Mandarin dictionary but also has the above functions.

For more info and links to these apps, see my guide to the best apps for traveling in Taiwan.

12 Mandarin Phrases and Patterns

Now, let’s get to my list of useful Chinese phrases and sentence patterns!

Hello, Thank You, Goodbye

Starting with the absolute basics, “hello” in Mandarin is nǐ hǎo (你好). In formal contexts, you can say nǐn hǎo (您好). It’s also normal to simple say “hello” or “hi”.

Adding the question participle makes this “nǐ hǎo ma” (你好嗎, “How are you?”), but Taiwanese people don’t say this often.

Xiè xiè (謝謝, “thank you”) is critical to learn but easy to mispronounce.

When departing, locals actually say bài bài (拜拜 or “bye bye”) more often than zài jiàn (再見), which literally means “see you again”.

Hǎo jiǔ bù jiàn (好久不見 , “long time no see”) is frequently used in Taiwan. As in English, use it when you haven’t seen someone in a while.

To Ask a Question (Qing Wen)

If you want to ask a random person a question in Taiwan, it would be rude to just blurt out your question. Instead, you should preface your question by saying “qǐng wèn”.

The equivalent in English would be “May I ask, ….?”. But in Taiwan, it doesn’t sound so formal.

It’s just a common courtesy and you should always use this (or the next phrase I’ll introduce) before asking a stranger a question.

Excuse Me (Bu Hao Yi Si)

The phrase “bù hǎo yì si” (不好意思) literally translates as “no good meaning”, but actually means “excuse me”.

This phrase is extremely useful and Taiwanese say it all the time. Here are some situations where you can use it:

• You want to ask someone a question (same function as qǐng wèn)
• You want to pass someone in a crowded place / squeeze through a crowd.
• You want to get a server, staff member, or driver’s attention.
• You accidentally bumped, interrupted, or bothered someone (mild apology).
• The word for “I’m sorry” (對不起 or duì bù qǐ) is for more serious transgressions in Taiwan, like you hurt someone, knocked over their drink, etc. It’s more like “I apologize”.

Note: If you are interrupting someone to ask them a question, you can use both of these phrases together: qǐng wèn, bù hǎo yì si, ….?”

While these two phrases together may seem overly formal or polite in English, this is very common language in Taiwan and I use it all the time. Taiwanese highly appreciate politeness and you will get much better responses if you speak like this.

Where is the …? (… Zai Na Li?)

Now that you know how to introduce your questions, let’s get to some actual questions you might ask.

A very obvious one that travelers will need to ask is “… zài nǎ lǐ?” (…在哪裡？), which means “Where is the …?”

Note that in Mandarin, you will say the thing/place first, then ask where it is.

Now, let’s put these three phrases together with some examples:

Do you have …? (You mei you …?)

Another very common question you may want to ask in Taiwan is “Do you have (something)?“

Whether you want to ask for certain food items, products, or bus tickets at a certain time, this will be a high frequency pattern.

There are actually several ways to ask this in Mandarin. In all of them, it is very common to omit the pronoun “you” (nǐ in Chinese), unless you are asking something about them personally (see the example table below).

“Yǒu méi yǒu…?” (有沒有) literally means “have or don’t have …?” To answer it, they will not say “yes” or “no” like in English. Mandarin doesn’t really have these words. Instead, they will reply “yǒu” (有, have) or “méi yǒu” (沒有, don’t have).

This pattern is extremely useful because it can be used with other verbs. For example, “shì bù shì” (是不是). This means “are you or are you not …?” or “is it or is it not…?). The answer would be “shì” (是) or “bù shì”.

Another is “kě bù kě yǐ” (可不可以), meaning “can” or “cannot”, to which the answer would be “kě yǐ” (可以) or “bù kě yǐ” (不可以). A similar one is “huì bù huì” (會不會), which means “able to” (use it for abilities, languages).

Yet another is “duì bù duì” (對不對, correct or incorrect). The answers duì (correct) and bù duì (incorrect) are the closest things Chinese has to “yes” and “no”.

Another way to ask for something is “yǒu … ma?” (literally “have … ?” or “… yǒu ma?” (… have?”

Is this … ? (Zhe shi … ma? )

Another super common question pattern is “Zhè shì … ma?” (這是 … 嗎？, Is this …?) You can insert many adjectives or nouns into the pattern.

If the item is further away from you, use the word “Nà” (那, that) instead of “this”, as in “Nà shì … ma?” (Is that…?)

In Taiwan, it’s common to add the measure word “ge” when talking about items, as in “zhè ge” (這個, “this one”) or “nà ge” (那個, that one). I’ll cover measure words further below.

So the question can become “Zhè ge shì … ma?” (“Is this one ….” or “Nà ge shì…ma?” (Is that one …?”

It’s best if we just look at some examples:

I want … (Wo yao … )

Besides asking questions, travelers will often need to state what they want.

In English, it would be blunt and impolite to say “I want steak” to a waitress. But in Mandarin, saying “wǒ yào niú pái” (我要牛排) is perfectly acceptable.

To make it negative, we add “bù” first, as in “bù yào” (不要). If a clerk offers you a plastic bag but you don’t want it, you could say “bù yào”, but it’s more polite to say “bù yòng” (不用), or “no use”, meaning you don’t need that things.

Don’t know how to say the thing you want? Very easy. Just use the terms “zhè ge” (this one) and “nà ge” (that one) that we learned in the previous entry.

So you can touch or point at something close to you and say “wǒ yào zhè ge” (我要這個, “I want this one”), or point at something further away and say “wǒ yào nà gè” (我要那個, I want that one).

This is a rudimentary way of speaking, but for beginner Mandarin speakers and for travelers, it will be a life saver.

Let’s say you’re in a nicer restaurant and/or you just want to sound a little more formal. Say this instead: “Wǒ xiǎng yào …” (我想要…). This translates as “I’m thinking of having” or “I would like”, so it sounds a little nicer.

I am … (Wo shi …)

When meeting Taiwanese, the first question they will ask you are “Where are you from?”

I can think of around half a dozen ways they could ask this. Here are the three most common, with literal translation.

• Nǐ shì nǎ lǐ lái de? (你是哪裡來的, “you are where from?”)
• Nǐ shì nǎ guó rén? (你是哪國人, “you are which country person?”)
• Nǐ cóng nǎ lǐ lái? (你從哪裡來, “you from where come?”)

The grammatically correct answer to each of the above questions would be different.

However, the simplest way to answer any of these questions would be to answer with the country name. So I will just say “Jiā ná dà” (加拿大 or Canada).

The next easiest would be to say “Wǒ shì … rén” (我是 … 人, “I am X person”). Unlike English, where each country has an adjective form (like “Canadian”), in Mandarin, we just say the country name + ren (person / people).

Don’t use the “wǒ shì” pattern for temporary things like age (I am 42) or mood (I am happy). See the final section of this article for those.

To talk about other people, instead of wǒ, use tā (he/she/it), wǒ men (us) or tā men (them).

Let’s look at more useful examples of this phrase.

* Usually “my” is “wǒ de“, but you can omit the possessive “de” when talking about family members.

I like / love … (Wo xi huan / ai … )

Expressing things that you like, don’t like, love, or don’t love can be useful and fun.

“Wǒ xǐ huān…” (我喜歡 …) means “I like …”. To make it negative, say “Wǒ bù xǐ huān …” (我不喜歡 …, “I don’t like …)

Taiwanese often add “hěn” (really/very) when talking about liking things. As in “Wǒ hěn xǐ huān …” (我很喜歡…, “I really like …”)

It’s the same for love: “wǒ ài …” (我愛…, “I love…”), “wǒ hěn ài” (我很愛…, “I really love…”), or “wǒ bù ài… (我不愛…, “I don’t love …”)

Know Your Numbers

Like anywhere, it won’t hurt to learn the numbers before your trip.

In the below table, note that the number two changes when it becomes a measure word. In other words, if you are counting, you say yī, èr, sān… But if you are asking for two of a thing, you would say “liǎng gè”.

To make ordinal numbers, you say “dì (number) gè”. For example, first is dì yī gè (第一個), second is dì èr gè (第二個), third is dì sān gè (第三個), and so on.

In English, bigger numbers go up by groups of 3 zeros (thousand has three zeros, million has 6, billion has 9, etc). Chinese bigger numbers go up by groups of 4.

So, wàn (萬) has four zeros (10,000). After that, 10萬 is 100,000, 100萬 is a million, 1000萬 is 10 million and the next word, yì (億) has eight zeros, equaling 100 million in English.

Because of this, Chinese speakers, even ones with really good English, often make mistakes when saying larger numbers in English, and vice versa.

So if someone tells you there are 23 thousand or 230 million people in Taiwan, you’ll know why (the correct number is 23 million – learn other facts about Taiwan here).

Measure Words

In English, only some nouns require counting words. For example “grain” of rice, “bag” of rice, “pair” of pants, or “piece” of advice.

In Mandarin, virtually every noun requires a measure word. Here’s a list of over 200 of them (simplified characters, but many are the same as traditional).

The most common measure word is “ge”. Use it for a thing or person. If you don’t know the correct measure word of any other thing, just use “ge” and you’ll be understood, even if it sounds a little wrong.

Even if the noun is omitted, you must still say the measure word. For example, if a clerk asks you how many fried chicken orders you want, don’t reply “yī” (one) or “wǒ yào yī (I want one)”. You should correctly reply “yī gè” or “wǒ yào yī gè”.

Here are some of the most common measure words:

Sound Particles

One very fun but difficult-to-master aspect of Mandarin is sound particles.

These can have grammatical purpose (first three below) or come at the end of a phrase/sentence to add some feeling or emphasis (last three below). Taiwanese use the latter a lot.

Using these (correctly) can make you sound more fluent. Here’s a list of common ones:

Other Useful Words and Sentences

Here’s a list of more words, phrases, questions, and responses that you may find useful for your Taiwan trip.