Useful foreign phrases |
Individual languages |
Colours |
Numbers |
Idioms |
Tongue twisters |
Proverbs
Useful foreign phrases |
Individual languages |
Colours |
Numbers |
Idioms |
Tongue twisters |
Proverbs
A collection of useful phrases in Taiwanese. Click on the English phrases to see them in many other languages.
The superscript numbers are tone markers. See the Taiwanese language page for more details.
| English | 台語 (Taiwanese) |
|---|---|
| Welcome | 歡迎光臨 (hoan-geng5 kong-lim5) |
| Hello | 你好 (li2-ho2) |
| Have you eaten? (Common greeting) Reply: I have eaten |
你食飽未？
(li2 chiah8 pa2 boe7) 你食飽未？ (li2 chiah8 pa2 be7) |
| 食飽啊 (chiah8 pa2 ao) | |
| How are you? (I'm) fine, thanks (I'm) not bad, thanks |
你好嗎? (li2-ho2-bo0) |
| (我)真好, 多謝 ((gua2) tsin5-ho, to-sia2) (我)未醜, 多謝 ((gua2) be7-bai2, to-sia2) |
|
| Long time no see | |
| What's your name? My name is ... |
請問，你貴姓？ (chhian2-mng7, li2 kui3-sen3?) 你叫啥物名？ (li2 kio3 sim2-mih8 mia5?) |
| 我姓 ... (gua2-sen3 ...) 我叫 ... (gua2 kio3 ...) |
|
| Where are you from? |
|
| Pleased to meet you | 我真歡喜及你熟似 (gua2 chin hoan-hi2 kap li2 sek8-sai7) |
| Good morning | 爻早 (gau5-cha2) |
| 午安 (go-on) | 午安 (go-on) |
| 晚安 (buan2-an) | 晚安 (buan2-an) |
| Good night | 晚安 (buan2-an) |
| Goodbye | 再見 (chai3-chian2) |
| Cheers/Good health! | 呼乾啦! (hō ta lah!) |
| Have a nice day | |
| Bon appetit | |
| Bon voyage | |
| Do you understand? | 你聼有無？ (li2 thian u7 boo?) |
| I understand | 我聽有 gua2 thian-u7 |
| I don't understand | 我聽無 gua2 thian-boo |
| I don't know | |
| Please speak more slowly | |
| Please say that again | 請閣講一擺 (chhian2 koh kong2 chito paio) |
| Please write it down | |
| Do you speak Taiwanese? Yes, a little |
你會曉講台語無? (li2 e7-hiau2 kong2 tai5-gi2 bo5) |
| 會曉, 一屑仔 (e7-hiau2, chit8-sut-a2) 會曉, 一點仔 (e7-hiau2, chit8-tiam2-a2) |
|
| How do you say ... in Taiwanese? | |
| Excuse me | 請問 (chhian2-mng7) 對不起 (tui3-put4-khi2) 借過 (tsioh4-kue3) |
| How much is this? | 偌濟錢? (goa7-che7-chin5) |
| Sorry | 失禮 (sit-le2) 歹勢 (phain2-se3) |
| Please | |
| Thank you Response |
多謝 (to-sia7) |
| 不客氣 (bian2 kheh-khi3) | |
| Where's the toilet? | 便所佇叨位? (piān-só ti7 to2-ui7) |
| This gentleman/lady will pay for everything |
|
| Would you like to dance with me? |
|
| I miss you | |
| I love you | 我愛你 (gua2 ai3 li2) |
| Get well soon | |
| Go away! | |
| Leave me alone! | |
| Help! Fire! Stop! |
救命！ (kiu3-mia7!) 火！ (hue2/he2!) 停！ (thing5!) |
| Call the police! | 叫警察! (kio3 keng2-chhat) |
| Merry Christmas and Happy New Year |
聖誕節快樂 (sing3-tan3-tseh khoai3-lok8) 新年快樂 (sin-ni5 khoai3-lok8) 恭喜發財 (kiong-hi2 huat-tsai5) |
| Happy Easter | 復活節快樂 (hok8uah8-tseh khoai3-lok8) |
| Happy Birthday | 生日快樂 (sen-jit8 khoai3-lok8) |
| One language is never enough | |
| My hovercraft is full of eels |
If you would like to make any corrections or additions to this page, please
contact me. If you can provide audio recordings
of any of these phrases, please send them to
Chinese Translation
of names and phrases
You can send me audio files in any format. If you don't know how to make recordings on a computer, you can send me recordings on audio cassette. Let me know if you want to do this and I'll send you my snailmail address. Or you can call me on Skype (omniglot) and I'll do the recording.
Omniglot Chinese
learn to read, write and pronounce Chinese characters
http://wikitravel.org/en/Taiwanese_phrasebook
Language learning materials for Taiwanese
Cantonese, Hakka, Mandarin, Shangainese, Taiwanese