For visitors from abroad
Phrasebook: show it or say it
Few people outside hotels and airports speak English, but everyone reads. Each card below has the Chinese characters large enough to show across a counter, with the pinyin and tone marks if you want to try saying it. Tap a card to open it full screen; tap it again to close.
Tap a card to show it full screen
Common questions
How do the tone marks work?
Mandarin has four tones: flat (ā), rising (á), falling then rising (ǎ) and falling (à). Getting them wrong changes the word, which is why showing the characters is more reliable than speaking for anything important.
Will Cantonese speakers understand these?
In Hong Kong, Macau and Guangdong people speak Cantonese, but the written characters are the same, so the show cards work everywhere. Hong Kong also has English signage and widespread spoken English.