--- title: Dinner at the friend's house — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Dinner at the friend's house», a lesson of the chinese street course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: From the kitchen Ming's mum calls «chī fàn le!» (dinner's ready!), literally «eating rice now». --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/11-dinner-at-the-friends-house/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Chinese street](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/) / Dinner at the friend's house # Dinner at the friend's house Lesson 11 of the chinese street course of Mova's primary school: 11 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/chinese-street/11-dinner-at-the-friends-house/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/11-dinner-at-the-friends-house/0/) — From the kitchen Ming's mum calls «chī fàn le!» (dinner's ready!), literally «eating rice now». - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/11-dinner-at-the-friends-house/2/) — On the table there is mǐfàn (rice) in a bowl each, which you pick up and hold near your mouth — good manners here, not messy like at school dinners. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/11-dinner-at-the-friends-house/3/) — Then dishes in the middle for everyone: the famous xīhóngshì chǎo jīdàn (tomato and egg), dòufu, maybe Granny's sticky hóngshāoròu. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/11-dinner-at-the-friends-house/4/) — Some days there are jiǎozi (dumplings), miàntiáo (noodles) to slurp, or plain mántou buns; breakfast may be zhōu, a salty rice porridge, nothing like British porridge. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/11-dinner-at-the-friends-house/5/) — And the kuàizi (chopsticks) have their own rules: never stand them upright in the rice, never point them at people, never drum on the bowl. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/11-dinner-at-the-friends-house/6/) — chī fàn le («CHR FAHN luh») means dinner's ready; fàn means rice and also meal, and the answer is lái le! (coming!). - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/11-dinner-at-the-friends-house/7/) — mǐfàn («MEE-fahn») is cooked rice, a bowl each at nearly every meal; lifting the bowl near your mouth is good manners. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/11-dinner-at-the-friends-house/9/) — mántou («MAHN?-toe») is a plain steamed bun with no filling; with a filling it is a bāozi. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/11-dinner-at-the-friends-house/10/) — miàntiáo («MYEN-tyow?») are noodles; slurping is fine, and on birthdays long noodles are not cut, because they mean long life. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/11-dinner-at-the-friends-house/15/) — hóngshāoròu («HONG?-shaow-ROE») is red-braised pork belly, sweet and glossy; families who don't eat pork, such as some Muslim Chinese families or vegetarians, won't cook it, so don't ask for it. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/11-dinner-at-the-friends-house/16/) — kuàizi («KWIGH-dz») are chopsticks; upright in rice they look like incense at a funeral, and pointing them or tapping the bowl is bad manners. - ← previous: [Grandparents, aunties and uncles — how families address elders](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/10-grandparents-aunties-uncles/) - next →: [Tasty! Spicy! I'm full!](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/12-tasty-spicy-im-full/) - ↑ back to [Chinese street](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/)