"给我一块咖啡蛋糕,谢谢!"
Translation:Give me a piece of coffee cake, thank you!
33 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
I think the bigger issue here is that Chinese don't add 谢谢 onto sentences like this one to be polite in the same way English speakers do. This sentence would be much more natural if it used 请 and omitted the 谢谢 at the end, at least for the Chinese sentence. As it is, the sentence comes off awkward in both languages.
I'm curious about the politeness issue. Here in Britain it's perfectly normal to say thank you after asking for something (as in "thank you in advance"), but we would ALWAYS say "please" either beforehand, or after (if we weren't aying thank you). Omitting the please would always come across as impolite, and even saying "please give me..." is very awkward sounding, as we generally use the conditional to be polite ("Please may I have...", "I would like... please.")
Does anyone have any good resources for how to master politeness in China? Also regarding 你 vs 您
1717
No, at least in the Chinese sentence it is not. Otherwise 咖啡 would not have come between 一块and 蛋糕. The meaning can only be "coffee flavored cake".
给我一杯咖啡和一块蛋糕 Give me a cup of coffee and a piece of cake.
给我咖啡和蛋糕 Give me some coffee and cake.
Coffee flavored cake:
Any one of
咖啡口味蛋糕
咖啡味蛋糕
咖啡蛋糕
Wikipedia: "Coffee cake is cake flavored with
or intended to be eaten with
coffee. British coffee cake is a sponge flavoured with coffee.[1] They are generally round and consist of two layers separated by coffee flavoured butter icing, which also covers the top of the cake. Walnuts are a common addition to coffee cakes.[2] In the United States, coffee cake generally refers to a sweet cake intended to be eaten with coffee or tea (like tea cake)."
1231
And if smb wants a cake, not a piece of cake... What counter should be used? Should it be 个?
30
Why must it be "thank you" and not "please"? "Please" to me sounds a lot more normal (even though it's not the word-by-word translation). But surely by this part of the course they shouldn't test people on 请 vs 谢谢 anymore :/
247
Unbelievable! I was docked a heart for using thanks instead of thank you when ni is not in the Mandarin!