How to say "how do you say ... in Chinese?"

[ralphmat123]

Hi everyone.

 

How do you say "How do you say ... in Chinese?"

 

Similarly, how do you ask "what does (this word) mean?"

 

Thanks 谢谢

 

[SiMaKe]

用中文怎么说。。。yòng Zhōngwén zěnme shuō...

e.g., 用中文怎么说"capitulate"? how do you say "capitulate" in Chinese?.

 

这个。。。是什么意思？zhège...shì shénme yīsi?

e.g., 这个句子是什么意思？what does this sentence mean?

[Carl Chen]

I give you some examples for references

1. 這個翻成中文是什麼意思 (翻 means 翻譯 translate)

2. 中文是什麼意思 (we omit '這個翻成' because we know you are asking the translation)

3. 這個的中文是什麼 (中文 = 中文意思)

4. 能請教一下這個的中文是什麼嗎 (more polite)

5. 不好意思打擾一下,請問您知道(這句話/這個東西/這個)的中文是什麼嗎? 謝謝 (more and more polite....ha)

6. 非常冒昧打擾您,請問您知道(這句話/這個東西/這個)的中文含義是什麼呢? 非常感謝 (more formal and polite. ha)

Note: 冒昧 is the formal way to say 不好意思....only used to someone who you respect or someone you are not familiar, but seldom used it to someone younger than you.

[Demonic_Duck]

Simplest way:

 

“[word]怎么说？” or “怎么说[word]？”

 

Either word order is technically correct. For some reason in this context I prefer the first, I guess because you can leave a little pause after the English/other language word that you're asking how to say to add emphasis.

 

You can also add “用中文” or simply “中文” to either one to get “用中文怎么说？” or “中文怎么说？”, as per SiMaKe's first example.

[ralphmat123]

Hi, sorry but my level is quite low so without pinyin and English translations I can't really understand your answers very well. Could someone give a simple answer? Sorry for my low level!

[Demonic_Duck]

http://www.perapera.org/plugins/

 

If there's anything specific you still don't understand after going through the answers with this tool (or something similar), we can help out.

[ralphmat123]

Thanks. Great extension. Very useful!