Newbie - Asking for a Phone Number

你好ChinesePod. I am new here, so I am still exploring the site and making sure my computer can see characters. I am all set with Chinese, Korean, and Japanese now, thanks to your FAQ. However, my pinyin tones show up as boxes. Did I miss the FAQ about that? 谢谢， Jo

One of my Chinese friends has a funny telephone number. It is xxxx-xxx-5174(wu3yao1qi1si4), which just sounds to me like 我要气死!

你的电话号码多少？ Is this sentence OK? Sometimes I've heard the previous question without using the verb "是".

你的电话号码多少？equals to 你的电话号码是多少？ Sometimes 是 is not necessary

If you want to say that you already knew something would that be "我已经知道了。" (wŏ yĭjīng zhīdao le) ?

I am sure this lesson is probably one of the most ueseful for all those single males coming to China. This lesson might help many of them get a date!

It's hard to determine which part of the lesson is more pleasurable: Learning new words or listening to Ken and Jenny's great sense of humour ...:--)

Yeah the Ken/Jenny chemistry is pretty unique when it comes to Chinese lessons.

Nice lesson.

I really believe I am learning something here. Excellent presentation and like the "new features" now available on the Chipod

Eileenblue, thanks for your answer

As Eileenblue pointed out 'Sometimes 是 is not necessary' in the question, but I'm fairly sure that it is needed in the answer, particularly if the subject is included. (wo de dianhua hao ma shi 88 888 8888).

I have no words to express such an amazing site like this one. I am a self taught girl, but with the help of this great couple I will certainly lengthen my stride. Xie xie ni. Wo ai ni.

Hi jlinchina, I've sent you a message on your conversation page. :-)

hi how are you very nice topic

Will someone tell me why the number one, 一，is pronounced "yao"? My Chinese teacher says this is a Cantonese pronounciation.

Hi onemarky, I don't know the technical rationale for yao, it has I think to do with the rhythm of the language when saying numbers, and for clarity, and maybe for whatever other historic reasons. It's kinda just like how U.S. English often says five-o-two, instead of zero. Except it's always so in Chinese when saying phone numbers and other strings of numbers. My knowledge of Cantonese says one is pronounce like 'yut', so I don't think it's similar. Clearly though, yao is now putonghua and used throughout China as standard.

I heard that 'yao' began as a military term, a little like 'niner' in English. 'yi' sounds so similar to 'qi' so they changed it.

this is my first comment her... i'd like to show my admire to this sit lessons that make me more motivated to learn mandarin ....... thanks to all participants.

I heard that "yi" was changed to "yao" in honor of YaoMing the basketball player, as he is # one according to all Chinese people... before he was a star, they said "yi" (don't listen to me, I'm just full of 臭臭) I called the number in the dialog. It was Jenny's since she wrote the script, only could think of her own number. (again, full of it). But that was another great Ken-Jenny moment when they realized in the middle of doing this podcast "Hey, wait, this might be someone's actual number! Don't call it!" Oh, and for those of you that aren't familiar with Chinese phone numbers, that was a cell phone number. In China all cell phones that can be contacted nationally start with 13<#> (and now some are 15<#>). Also there are two cell phone companies, Chinese Mobile and China Unicom. I believe when the 3rd number (the <#>) is 6-9 it is China Mobile, the company I use. I can't remember which are CM and which are CU, but CM has more prefixes. Some useless trivia for your mind.... Well, don't just stand there.... go dial Yao Ming! Or go call Jenny (it may get you a Jenny on the line, but not our Jenny... or maybe a Lily or a Lucy or...)

A question for Chinese: You know in Hollywood movies, or TV shows, whenever a phone number is used, it must be 555-####? Is that a practice in China? A question to non-Americans: How about other countries? In America there are no # with 555 as the prefix of a local number, all of them are just for Hollywood. Is there a law or something that they must use 555, or just good etiquette? I'm asking a lot of questions here, for people of all nations to give input.

Maxiwawa, my Chinese teacher said the same thing you did about yi and yao... he also said that it's difficult to distinguish how many yi's there are in a series... similar to confusing 15 and 50 in English.

Is it okay to ask this way: 你的手机好马是什么

tuoni, No, the correct way is to say: 你的手机号码是多少？ Nǐ de shǒujī hàomǎ shì duōshao？

maxiewawa is right, in that they pronounce 1 as yao1 rather than yi1 to avoid confusion with 7 (qi1). It's somewhat similar to the 'niner' example, but of course it's not just used in the military, but mostly for giving numbers like phone numbers. BTW I just checked my dictionary and found that 1 in Chinese is 幺 when pronounced yao1. haha new day new discovery.

in fact,my telphone number is +8613297974646.

I am using the mobile version on these pages but I think the pinyin seems to bo missing from the dialogue page? Thanks

Hi Mrdtait, I can confirm that all the dialogue pages do not explicitly write the pinyin as they are already present in the rollovers. I believe that you will need pointer or a touch screen in order to hover over the pinyin in the mobile site.

Wo hen xihuan putonghua, wo yiting zai Faguo xuexi hanyu soyi wo hen gaoxin !I yes...l like very much the lessons and discussions here to revise and improve but I would like to type directly in chinese characters in that box. Do you know how I can do under Windows XP which already recognizes the characters when receiving them? xiexie nimen evelyne

see help at chinesepod http://chinesepod.com/help#

hmm... posting a phone number for Jenny.... 555 numbers just being for Hollywood... why am I suddenly thinking of 867-5309? JENNY! Are you the one?

Useful. Thanks

@pecha, CP should record a cover of "Jenny" (the 867-5309 song) in Mandarin.  I will try it myself in hokey karaoke:

Jenny 知道你的号码 ／ 八六七五三〇九

There's just 1 extra syllable for 你的 instead of "your" that is easily absorbed into the beat.

Dear Cpod,

20 Days back I started Chinese not knowing any words beyond xie xie and nihao.

Today I just completed all three exercises of this lesson in Hanzi. It is for me a great moment. I never imagined I could ever come to read or recognise Hanzi.. and most I had hoped for was to learn to speak a bit of Chinese.

 

I still have  a long way to go, but I feel with CPOD, I'll succeed.

Thanks a million!!!