In the audio discussion you said yi 一 was 2nd tone in yi xia.On it's own it's usually 1st tone ,right?,so is this one of those tone change rules? I love the admission to giggling in the 电梯 btw.A sign of a delightful personality.

While 等一下,will obviously do the trick,I'm wondering if this would be the most common thing to say when you want someone to hold the lift,and also wondering if there is a more specific request when you want someone to hold the lift.

It's comforting to learn 坐电题.With so many skyscrapers including Taipei 101 [?still {dubai caught up yet} the tallest building in the world] it's nice to know it's ok to sit down in these long lift rides.The Chinese are so hospitable.

Newbies,

The natural progression from this lesson is to the Ellie lesson "Don't push that button" which is here,so you can tell that 孩子 to 别按都 the buttons and to 千万别按 the emergency stop [?停] button.

When 一 is followed by a forth tone, it becomes second tone. For example, 一下/yi2 xia4, 一次/yi2 ci4, 一句/yi2 ju4.  You can also refer to our pinyin chart for an overview of pronunciation.

I thought it must have been that.I knew bu4 changes to bu2 when followed by a fourth [I think].Thanks for confirming that.Is this the case every single time? Are we never to see a first followed by a fouth without change?

I just downloaded the pinyin chart you linked to.Very neat.I like the 1st-4th option so you can hear the difference at once.

You can find a lot of 一 (first tone) followed by fourth tone. The tone of 一 remains unchanged when it's used as an ordinal number, such as 一月 (yi1yue4)，第一次 (di4yi1ci4)，一号 (yi1hao4)，and 一二九七年.

Additionally, you need to pronounce it "yi1" when you read a "naked" number such as 31791. That said, native people usually read it this way, san1 yao1 qi1 jiu3 yao1, so as not to mistake 一 (yi) for 七 (qi1).

Yeah,I could have sworn I'd seen plenty of first tones remain first when followed by fourth.Thanks for your examples.Apart from those,how do you know when it applies? Yeah,I knew about the yao1 thing but good point.

Jenny,

Have you seen "Kate and Leopold" which may enhance your point here ?

Westerners must come across as a mixture of way too polite ( I say 'sorry' and 'thanks' and excuse myself constantly ) and like complete neanderthals ( I just never seem to get a hangover! ). 

B:  不要等你。木哈哈哈哈～