您

[CBC]

yes. I'm from Jiangsu, a bit of south, so we do not use "您", but in my dialect there are some respectful words intead of 您 which do not have written form.

Anyway, I use Mandarin most of the time so I frequentley use "您" to older people. They are happy with it and feel that I'm a humble young person. I like it.

[ankong]

seesaw: Thanks for your suggestion, but I heard my chinese friend said like that, he put the word "老" in front of family name, "lao zhang" not "zhang lao".

[Guest IVYtony]

well, I'm a Mandarin speaker. I always use 您 when calling my parents grandparents and other old people when I feel I ought to.

I just feel uncomfortable when hearing somebody (my college roommate) call their parent with 你.

Usually, 您 the word shows your respect to people. In more cases, when you are talking with an old people, I would advise you use "您老", that sounds more respectful.

[madizi]

NIN LAO??????? Could you please post an example????

[xiaocai]

“是什么风把您老吹来啦？”

“您老的身子骨还是这么硬朗！”

“您老”大概是“您老人家”的意思吧，应该是一种省略的形式。

[madizi]

Could someone say: 您老，现在几点钟？

So, if I understand it right, you can put 您老 everywhere instead of 您?

[Ian_Lee]

Actually only until recently did I realize that 您 and 你 got different pronounciations in Mandarin.

In Cantonese both characters pronounce the same.

I remember when I was in Grade 6, I already learnt 您 in the once a week correspondence class.

The teacher told us to address somebody more intimate with 您 in the letter while others with 你.

As a kid, many classmates could not tell whom to apply. So the teacher wrote the character 愛 (Love) on the blackboard. She told us since both characters have the heart (心), whenever we wrote to somebcdy whom we felt having passion in our hearts, then we should use 您 in lieu of 你

So when I was dating girl, I used 您 in the letter to address her.

However, after I got married, gradually I replaced 您 with 你 when I wrote to my wife.

[xiaocai]

“您老”的词性和用法类似于“您”，作为代词，一般是不能用来直接称呼人的。所以“您老，现在几点钟？”或者“您，现在几点钟？”的用法都是不正确的。

我一般会说“请问，现在是几点钟？”

还有，我一般不会向被叫作“您老”的人问时间，因为对方身份很高，问时间显得不太礼貌。当然，这是我个人的感觉。

[madizi]

Oh, you're right again (as always ). I wrote completely wrong example

But still wanna know if 您 could ALWAYS be exchanged with 您老?

您好=?您老好

[xiaocai]

其实有些时候礼貌用语也有一定的“个体差异”，我个人的习惯可能不会被所有的人接受。尤其是来自不同方言区，不同文化圈的人，通常会在这上面产生分歧。所以，“个人感觉”的部分请参考一下就可以了。

“您老”不能完全代替“您”。因为里面有个“老”字，所以一般情况下只能用在对方是一位老人的时候。

“您老好”从意思上面和语法上面确实没有任何问题。但是“**好”这种句式，似乎都是用在见面的第一句话。但是，要在对一个地位比你高的人打招呼的话，一般都会用“姓+称谓（教授，经理，老师，先生等等）+您好”这种结构。所以呢，“您老好”使用的机会就很少了。不过我觉得并不算是错。以上内容也是个人意见。

[madizi]

谢谢！

[madizi]

谢谢！

[seesaw]

seesaw: Thanks for your suggestion, but I heard my chinese friend said like that, he put the word "老" in front of family name, "lao zhang" not "zhang lao".

“老”是可以用来对年长的人"show respect"的，这时候我们说“张老”而不是“老张”。"Lao" can be used to show respect to elderly (or old) people. In such situations, we use "Zhang Lao" rather than "Lao Zhang". 后者能体现的仅仅是“熟悉”。The latter one -- "Lao Zhang" -- only shows (that "Lao Zhang" is an) "acquaintance" (of the speaker).

[Haizi]

A Principle:

To simplify learning, it helps to follow a standard, and Putonghua seem to be a good standard to follow for most CFL learners.

Nuts and Bolts:

1. Nin2 doesn't exist in many Chinese dialects;

2. Nin2 exists in Beijing dialect, which is the base of Putonghua;

3. Nin2 is used to show respect;

4. Don't use nin2 to address your spouse, your close friends, or your children, etc. if you don't want them to keep distance from you. This is like calling your boyfriend "Sir" in English;

5. Lao3 does show respect, especially in the case of family-name + lao3 if the person being addressed is indeed an old person. If you call a middle-aged Chinese man xiao3 + his family name, he will probably feel not being treated seriously. You'd better use lao3 + his family name;

6. Nin2 lao3 is the short form of nin2 lao3ren2jia1.

[ever00t]

你 the pinyin of it as ni,and 您 the pinyin of it as nin,well,always remember this, 您(nin) is a polite saying for someone (very much polite),so in the original post why that kid used 您 to his mom,well,maybe that kid was playing around

[Catdiseased]

so in the original post why that kid used 您 to his mom,well,maybe that kid was playing around

No, I don't think so. Many Chinese familys (especially the ones in Beijing) have a strict and conservativ opinion on children respecting their parents and grandparents. My female cousin is also refering to my aunt and uncle with "您".

Actually, there is also 您们, when you are talking to more than one person that you respect. But it is rarely used today.

[Claw]

Actually, there is also 您们, when you are talking to more than one person that you respect. But it is rarely used today.

Actually, we had a thread where people said 您们 was wrong:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/viewtopic.php?p=29153#29153