behind the door/phone

[Guest AlexF]

Hi!

Situation:

I am at home, when somebody rings the doorbell, i come to the door and ask before opening: - who is there?

what is the right way to ask this in chinese - stupidly ask 谁是?

Or in another situation when somebody calls me by phone and i cannot understand who is calling. How to ask politely?

Thanx!

[Quest]

1: 是谁呀？

2：请问你是哪位？

[BeijingSlacker]

Casual way: 谁啊

Polite way: 请问您是哪位

apply to both phone and door situations.

I personally would not use 谁啊 on the phone. Its a bit rude I guess.

[galitonwu]

普通话：谁啊？

上海话：啥您？

[handbus]

And in cantonese you can just pronounce "bingle" to mean "who is that calling"

In Sichuanese "哪一个 la3yi2guo3" instead of "na3 yi1 ge4" for the meaning "which one"

[BeijingSlacker]

Poor guy.

asked one question and was bombarded by how to say it in 100 different dialects

[pazu]

Just shout 找誰!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was what I got when I called to the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad about 2 years ago.

[sunyata]

islamabad...haha, what did you expect? a free foot massage and a beijing duck dinner?

[skylee]

And in cantonese you can just pronounce "bingle" to mean "who is that calling"

I like it.