What’s your phone number?

Lesson 8

Now that you’ve learnt numbers, time and dates, try reading a dialogue that combines them with some useful new vocabulary!

Supplementary Vocabulary

累	lèi	tired
要	yào	need; want to, will
回家	huí jiā	go home
哦	ò	oh
走	zǒu	leave
什么时候	shén me shí hou	when
下个	xià ge	next
上个	shàng ge	last

挺好	tǐng hǎo	great
还	hái	still
长	cháng	long
短	duǎn	short
时间	shí jiān	time
可以	kěyǐ	can
保持	bǎo chí	maintain
联系	liánxì	contact

当然	dāng rán	of course
电话号码	diàn huà hào mǎ	phone number
多少	duō shǎo	how many
手机号	shǒu jī hào	mobile number
打电话	dǎ diàn huà	to make a phone call
1	yāo	one (in phone numbers)
吧	ba	suggestion particle
好啊	hǎo a	okay, sure
一起	yī qǐ	together

Dialogue

The next day Emily and John see Lily at dinner. Emily walks over to talk to her.

Try your best to understand the dialogue using the vocabulary lists and notes. However, if you are still unclear about something, click this box to see the English translation.

Lily: Good evening.
Emily: Good evening. How are you?
Lily: Not too good, I’m tired. I’m going back home tomorrow.
Emily: Oh. What time are you leaving?
Lily: I’m leaving at eight o’clock tomorrow morning. When are you going back home?
Emily: We’re going back on the 10th of next month.
Lily: That’s great. You still have a long time.
Emily: Can we stay in touch?
Lily: Of course we can!
Emily: What’s your phone number?
Lily: My mobile number is 86-781-0917.
Emily: I’ll give you a call tomorrow afternoon.
Lily: Okay!

Notes

Using上 and 下

上 (shàng) can be used to indicate “previous” or “last”. For example:

• 上个月 (shàng gè yuè) – last month
• 上个星期(shàng yī cì) – last week

下 (xià) can be used to indicate “next”. For example:

• 下个星期 (xià gè xīngqī) – next week
• 下一个 (xià yī gè) means – next (like when calling the next person in line)

Talking about the future

You’ve already learnt that “什么” means “what”. When combined with “时候”which means a specific moment in time. When you combine them to form “什么时候”, you’re basically asking, “what moment in time”, which is the same as asking “when”. For example:

• 你们什么时候回国？(Nǐmen shénmeshíhou huíguó?) – When are you going home?
• 你什么时候去北京？(Nǐ shénmeshíhou qù Běijīng?) – When are you going to Beijing?

Asking how many (多少）

When asking for a quantity or a number we use the question word 多少. For example:

• 你有多少个朋友？(Nǐ yǒu duōshǎo gè péngyou?) – How many friends do you have?
• 你的手机号是多少？(Nǐde shǒujīhào shì duōshǎo?) – What’s your mobile number?

Learn more about how to correctly use 多少.

Pronouncing the number one

You learnt that 1 in Chinese is pronounced “yī, but now, you heard in the dialogue it is pronounced “yāo”. This is because when “one” is said in a phone number or room number, it is pronounced “yāo”. This change came about to prevent misunderstandings. The sound of “一”  (yī) is quite similar to the number “七”  (qī) due to their shared ending of “ī,” making it challenging to differentiate between them.

Making suggestions with吧

In Chinese, 吧 (ba) is a modal particle that is often used to make suggestions or recommendations. When used in this way, it is similar to the English phrases “how about” or “why don’t you.” For example:

上个月	shàng gè yuè
上一次	shàng yī cì
下个星期	xià gè xīngqī
下一个	xià yī gè
我明天要回家。	Wǒ míngtiān yào huíjiā.
我们下周要去北京。	Wǒmen xiàzhōu yào qù Běijīng.
你们什么时候回国？	Nǐmen shénmeshíhou huíguó?
你什么时候去北京？	Nǐ shénmeshíhou qù Běijīng?
你有多少个朋友？	Nǐ yǒu duōshǎo gè péngyou?
你的手机号是多少？	Nǐde shǒujīhào shì duōshǎo?
我明天下午给你打电话吧。	Wǒ míngtiān xiàwǔ gěi nǐ dǎdiànhuà ba.
我们一起去北京吧。	Wǒmen yìqǐ qù Běijīng ba.