--- title: Thank you, sorry, excuse me — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Thank you, sorry, excuse me», a lesson of the chinese street course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: At Ming's house good manners are a little different from yours: there is a thank-you, a sorry for when you did wrong, a softer sorry fo --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/3-thank-you-sorry-excuse-me/) [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/) / Thank you, sorry, excuse me # Thank you, sorry, excuse me Lesson 3 of the chinese street course of Mova's primary school: 13 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/3-thank-you-sorry-excuse-me/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/3-thank-you-sorry-excuse-me/0/) — At Ming's house good manners are a little different from yours: there is a thank-you, a sorry for when you did wrong, a softer sorry for small slips, and the answers that go with them. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/3-thank-you-sorry-excuse-me/3/) — Bump into someone and you say duìbuqǐ (sorry, I did it); they answer méi guānxi (never mind). - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/3-thank-you-sorry-excuse-me/4/) — Arrive late or forget a name and you say the shy bù hǎoyìsi, with a smile. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/3-thank-you-sorry-excuse-me/5/) — Picture a crowded bus: «jiè guò yíxià!» gets you past, qǐng wèn starts a question to a stranger, and máfan nǐ asks a favour, like «sorry to trouble you». - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/3-thank-you-sorry-excuse-me/6/) — xièxie («SHYEH-shyeh», the first falling, the second light) means thank you; children thank elders for gifts and food, though too many thank-yous between best friends can sound distant. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/3-thank-you-sorry-excuse-me/8/) — bú yòng xiè («BOO yong SHYEH») means no need to thank me, a bit warmer than bú kèqi. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/3-thank-you-sorry-excuse-me/9/) — méi shìr («MAY shr», with a Beijing r curl; southern speakers say méi shì) means no problem, it's nothing, or I'm fine after a small fall. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/3-thank-you-sorry-excuse-me/11/) — méi guānxi («MAY gwahn-shee») means never mind, the usual answer to duìbuqǐ; guānxi alone means connections, who you know. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/3-thank-you-sorry-excuse-me/12/) — bù hǎoyìsi («boo HOW-ee-sz») is a softer everyday sorry or excuse me for small slips, and also means «oh, I'm embarrassed». - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/3-thank-you-sorry-excuse-me/13/) — qǐng («ching», dipping) is please as an invitation: qǐng zuò (please sit), qǐng jìn (please come in); kids ask for things with ... hǎo ma? or ... ba instead. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/3-thank-you-sorry-excuse-me/14/) — qǐng wèn («ching WUN») means excuse me, may I ask; wèn must fall, because dipping wěn means kiss. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/3-thank-you-sorry-excuse-me/16/) — jiè guò yíxià («jyeh GWAW ee-shyah») means excuse me, can I get past; yī is said rising in yíxià because a falling tone follows. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/3-thank-you-sorry-excuse-me/17/) — xièxie nǐ («SHYEH-shyeh nee») is a fuller thank you, lovely to a friend's parent who helped you, but funny to your best friend for every crisp. - ← previous: [The four tones: same sound, different meaning](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/2-the-four-tones/) - next →: [Yes and no — there is no single word](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/4-yes-and-no/) - ↑ back to [Chinese street](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/)