幺是一
How to say your phone number in Chinese
Name: ________________ Date: ________
新同学是个女孩，坐在我旁边。她很爱笑。
我想了一个星期。下课的时候，我问她：“你的手机号是多少？”
她说话很快：“幺三九，零幺八，六……”
我听到的是：“要，三，九，零，要，八，六……”她要什么？
她笑了：“幺，是一。”“说手机号的时候，很多人不说一，说幺。”
“为什么？”
“一和七，听起来有一点儿像。”
她说：“好，我慢慢说。”
我没有本子，就写在了手上。
晚上，我看着我的手，看了一个小时。
九点，我给她打了电话。
她马上就说：“喂！你怎么现在才打电话？”
Key words
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 新 | xīn | new; newly; just |
| 同学 | tóngxué | classmate; fellow student |
| 坐 | zuò | to sit |
| 很 | hěn | very; quite |
| 星期 | xīngqī | week |
| 下课 | xiàkè | to finish class; class is over |
| 问 | wèn | to ask |
| 手机 | shǒujī | mobile phone; cell phone |
| 号 | hào | day of the month; date |
| 说话 | shuōhuà | to speak; to talk |
| 零 | líng | zero; nought |
| 六 | liù | six |
English (for the teacher)
The new student is a girl, and she sits next to me. She laughs a lot.
I thought about it for a whole week. Then after class, I asked her, “What’s your phone number?”
She said it fast: “Yao three nine, zero yao eight, six…”
What I heard was, “Want, three, nine, zero, want, eight, six…” What did she want?
She laughed. “Yao means one.” “When people say phone numbers, lots of them say yao instead of yi.”
“Why?”
“Yi and qi, one and seven, sound a little alike.”
She said, “OK, I’ll say it slowly.”
I didn’t have a notebook, so I wrote it on my hand.
That evening, I looked at my hand for an hour.
At nine, I called her.
She answered straight away: “Hello!” “What took you so long?”