4.7 On the Phone — Epoché
What you will be able to do Answer a telephone in Chinese, and say who you are. Say that you cannot hear or did not understand, and ask the other person to speak up. Read a telephone number aloud, with the digit that changes its name. Ask somebody to wait a moment. Prerequisites : 2.7, which gives the numbers, and 3.3 and 4.6. On the telephone you lose the face, the gestures and most of the context, which is why it is the conversation a learner fears. Three things make it easier to survive, and all three are in this lesson: the word for picking up, the sentences for saying what went wrong, and the way numbers are read. Dialogue A A call on a bad line. A picks up; B is calling. A 喂！ [1] — Hello? B 是我。 [2] — It's me. A 我听不见你。 [3] — I can't hear you. B 喂？你还在吗？ [4] — Hello? Are you still there? A 请说大声一点儿。 [5] — Could you speak up a bit? B 等一下再打电话给你，可以吗？ [6] — Let me call you back in a minute, OK? A 好的。 [7] — OK. The first line is the telephone word on its own — a syllable used for picking up the phone and for checking that somebody is still on the line, as B does in the fourth line. The caller then says who it is: 是我 , it's me , is enough when the other person knows your voice; to anybody else you say 我是 and your name. The third line is the first of the two failures: the line is bad and nothing is heard. B's offer to call back uses 等一下 , in a moment , and ends with the is-it-all-right ending from 4.6. Dialogue B Two colleagues in an office. A asks for B's extension, and meets the second of the two failures: heard, but not understood. A 你的电话号码是多少？ [8] — What's your number? B 我的电话号码是789。 [9] — My number's 789. A 对不起，我听不懂。 [10] — Sorry, I didn't understand that. B 我会打电话给你。 [11] — I'll ring you. A 我等你电话。 [12] — I'll wait for your call. B 再见。 [13] — Bye. The number in the second line is read digit by digit, not as a whole number: seven eight nine, never seven hundred and eighty-nine. The same goes for room numbers. A number with a one in it usually uses the other name for that digit: 120, the number for an ambulance in the mainland, in the table below, is yāo èr líng . B's answer to the failure is practical — a call, after which A will have the number. Saying It Another Way Nine lines: numbers, waiting, the two failures, and the verbs for making and answering a call. Chinese English When 电话号码是多少？ [14] What's the number? asking for a number 你的电话号码是多少？ [8] What's your number? asking for somebody's own number 喂，是120吗？ [15] Hello, is that 120? a number with one in it, read yāo èr líng 等一下。 [16] Wait a moment. asking somebody to wait, on the phone or at a counter 我听不见你。 [3] I can't hear you. when the line is bad: the hearing compound 对不起，我听不懂。 [10] Sorry, I didn't understand that. when you heard but did not understand: the understanding compound 请说大声一点儿。 [5] Could you speak up a bit? asking the other person to speak louder 我会打电话给你。 [11] I'll ring you. promising a call: the verb is to hit 没有人接电话。 [17] Nobody answered the phone. the verb for answering a call: to receive How This Differs from English The digit one is read differently in numbers. Its ordinary name, yī , is easily confused with qī , seven, on a bad line, so in telephone numbers, room numbers, bus routes and anything else read digit by digit it is usually given another name, yāo . In the mainland this is ordinary usage, not slang, and a learner who reads the ordinary name may be asked to repeat the number. Numbers are read as digits. A telephone number is a string of single digits with no word for hundred or thousand. The same applies to years: a year is four digits read one after another, not a number — though in a year the digit one keeps its ordinary name, yī . The verb for making a call is the verb for hitting. It is the same character used for playing ball games and for a great many other actions of the hand; the telephone sense is one you will meet early. Voice messages. In China a good deal of everyday talk happens in messaging apps, some of it as voice messages, which is good news for a learner: a voice message can be replayed, and replaying is exactly what a beginner needs. The vocabulary in this lesson still applies, because the same words are used for a voice call inside the app. Say what failed. Chinese distinguishes not hearing from not understanding with two different compounds, and it is worth using the right one: saying you did not hear invites the other person to speak up, and saying you did not understand invites them to say it differently. New words Word Meaning Notes 喂 zh wèi interjection · hello (on the phone) Note for English speakers Used to answer a call and to check that somebody is still on the line; said to somebody in front of you, it is a rough hey! , not a greeting. On the phone many speakers say it with a rising tone, wéi . 喂！ — Hello? 喂？你还在吗？ — Hello? Are you still there? 电话 zh diànhuà （ 電話 ） diànhuà noun · telephone; call Note for English speakers From 0.2. Electric plus speech. Also the call itself. 没有人接电话。 — Nobody answered the phone. 我等你电话。 — I'll wait for your call. 打电话 zh dǎ diànhuà （ 打電話 ） dǎ diànhuà verb phrase · to make a phone call Note for English speakers The verb means to hit; it takes the phone as its object. The person called is marked with 给 , either after the phrase ( 打电话给你 ) or before the verb ( 给你打电话 ). 我会打电话给你。 — I'll ring you. 接 zh jiē verb · to answer (a call); to receive; to meet Note for English speakers Also to collect somebody from a station. 没有人接电话。 — Nobody answered the phone. 号码 zh hàomǎ （ 號碼 ） hàomǎ noun · number (telephone, room) Note for English speakers A number that names something, as a telephone number does; a number as a quantity is a different word. 你的电话号码是多少？ — What's your number? 我的电话号码是789。 — My number's 789. 多少 zh duōshao pronoun · how much, how many Note for English speakers From 3.3. Used to ask for the number itself, as in the first line of the table. 电话号码是多少？ — What's the number? 等一下 zh děng yīxià phrase · wait a moment Note for English speakers Wait plus one plus