Unwittingly double meaning

[Flickserve]

Came across this situation in cantonese today in HK.

I took a message for a colleague who had temporarily walked out of the room.

I said the cantonese equivalent of "妳不在這里" - you were not here.

She took offence at it as the double meaning is "you are not here" - passed away.

Anything like that in mandarin?

[imron]

不在了.  Which is why you hear (at least in the north) people say things like 他没在.

[Flickserve]

Thanks

不在 spoken using cantonese in HK has no such connotations.

I told my colleague it was learnt from the chinese language learning books. Quick and acceptable way to get out of trouble!

[Flickserve]

double post. Please delete.

[Demonic_Duck]

不在了. Which is why you hear (at least in the north) people say things like 他没在.

Holy crap, I never thought to question why people say it like that before.

[dwq]

If you say the equivalent of 妳剛才不在這裏 it would have been okay, and just 妳不在這裏 isn't too bad actually, but 他不在這裏了 ("He's no longer here") definitely sounds bad, like he's been fired or deceased.