In this Part 2 of my Air Travel in Chinese series, I will provide you with dialogue, vocabulary and phrases for boarding your flight and finding your seat.
Please check out the other posts in my Air Travel in Chinese series:
- Part 1: Airport Vocabulary and Phrases
- Part 2: Boarding your flight (this post)
- Part 3: In-flight meal and beverage service
- Part 4: Landing and disembarking from the plane
Table of Contents
Dialogue
Boarding your flight – Chinese Dialogue
Welcome aboard。
huānyíng dēng jī.
Business or economy?
zuò gōngwù háishì jīngjì cāng?
Economy Class.
jīngjì cāng.
May I see your boarding pass？
wǒ néng kàn yīxià nín de dēng jī pái ma?
Okay. Your seat number is 28A. This way，please。
hǎo de, nǐ de zuòwèi biānhào shì èrshíbā A. zhè biān qǐng.
Thank you.
xièxiè.
Dialogue Breakdown
Welcome aboard。
欢 迎 登 机 。
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| huānyíng | dēng jī |
| Welcome | aboard (to board a plane) |
Notes:
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欢 迎 (huānyíng) is a common greeting, which you may have heard in other situations such as restaurants. A common way of using this is to say欢 迎 光 临 (huānyíng guānglín). -
登 机 (dēng jī) literally means “to board”登 (dēng) a “machine”机 (jī). The word “machine”机 (jī) is commonly used in many Chinese words such as:- “aeroplane” (fly – machine)
飞 (fēijī). - “washing machine” (laundry – machine)
洗 衣 机 (xǐyījī).
- “mobile phone” (hand – machine)
手 (shǒujī). - “coffee machine” (coffee – machine)
咖 啡 (kāfēi jī).
- “aeroplane” (fly – machine)
Business or economy?
坐 公 务 还 是 经 济 舱 ？
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| zuò | gōngwù | háishì | jīngjì | cāng? |
| sit | business | or | economy | class |
Notes:
- This is really the equivalent of someone asking “business or economy?”
- Here
公 务 (gōngwù) means “official business”, however what is meant is “business class”公 务 舱 , this is like English where you would probably not repeat class twice, that is by asking “are you sitting in business or economy class” rather than saying “are you sitting in business class or economy class“ -
还 是 (háishì) is the normal way of saying “or” when asking a question, while it’s common alternative you may have also seen或 者 (huòzhě) is used in statements (“declarative statements’) and not questions, so isn’t used here.
Economy Class.
经 济 舱 。
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| jīngjì | cāng |
| economy | class |
Notes:
- As discussed above
经 济 舱 (jīngjì cāng) means “economy class”. - Chinese is typically very concise when the context of the question understood, so there is no need to say “I’m sitting in economy”; keep in mind that when boarding a plane there are probably 100 passengers queuing behind you, so brevity is appropriate.
May I see your boarding pass？
我 能 看 一 下 您 的 登 机 牌 吗 ?
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| wǒ | néng | kàn yīxià | nín de | dēng jī pái ma |
| I | can | look | (at) your | boarding pass |
Notes:
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看 一 下 (kàn yīxià) is a common way of saying “take a look” or “take a brief look”. Specifically看 (kàn) means “to look” and一 下 (yīxià) means “a bit” so effectively看 一 下 (kàn yīxià) means “take a look for a bit”. -
您 的 (nín de) means “your”, where的 (de) is what is known as a “possessive particle”, which is basically a character that turns “you”你 (nǐ) into “your”你 的 (nǐ de) or “me”我 into “my”我 的 (wǒ de). Check out my post on de here.
Okay. Your seat number is 28A. This way，please.
好 的 ， 你 的 座 位 编 号 是 2 8 A . 这 边 请 。
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| hǎo de | nǐ de | zuòwèi | biānhào | shì | èrshíbā A | zhè biān | qǐng |
| good (okay) | your | seat | number | is | 28A | this way | please |
Notes:
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好 的 (hǎo de) means “good’, “okay” or “agreed”. -
座 位 (zuòwèi) the the normal way to say “seat” in Chinese, for example “this is your seat” would be这 是 你 的 座 位 (zhè shì nǐ de zuòwèi). To say “please sit” you would say请 坐 (qǐng zuò).
Thank you.
谢 谢 。
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| xièxiè |
| thank you |
Notes:
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谢 谢 (xièxiè) is basic Chinese and a common way to say thank you.
Getting to your seat on the plane – Chinese Dialogue
Do you need help with your bags?
nín xūyào wǒ bāngzhù nín ná xínglǐ ma?
Yes, thank you.
hǎo de, xièxiè.
I’ll put them in the overhead compartment.
wǒ fàng dào tóudǐng shàngfāng de xínglǐ cāng lǐ.
Dialogue Breakdown
Do you need help with your bags?
您 需 要 我 帮 助 您 拿 行 李 吗 ？
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| nín | xūyào | wǒ | bāngzhù | nín | ná | xínglǐ | ma |
| you (polite) | need | me | help | you (polite) | take | luggage | <question> |
Notes:
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需 要 (xūyào) is a common way to say need something. You may know that it is common in Chinese to use two characters rather than one, even though individually the characters carry the same meaning. Be sure to check out my post on the use of 要 here. -
帮 助 (bāngzhù) means “help”, other examples of this include- “Can you help me?”
你 能 (nǐ néng bāngzhù wǒ) - ”I am ready to help“
我 也 愿 意 (wǒ yě yuànyì bāngzhù nǐ) - “Please help me”
请 (qǐng bāng wǒ); this is an example of using 帮 rather than帮 我
- “Can you help me?”
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行 李 (xínglǐ) means “luggage”, “bag” or “baggage” and is a word you should remember for your travels, for example:- “this is my baggage”
这 是 我 的 (zhè shì wǒ de xínglǐ) - “I’ve los my bag”
我 丢 了 我 的 (wǒ diūle wǒ de xínglǐ)
- “this is my baggage”
Yes, thank you.
好 的 ， 谢 谢 。
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| hǎo de | xièxiè |
| Okay | Thank you |
Notes:
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好 的 (hǎo de) can mean “good’, “okay” or “agreed”.
I’ll put them in the overhead compartment.
我 放 到 头 顶 上 方 的 行 李 舱 里 。
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| wǒ | fàng dào | tóudǐng | shàngfāng de | xínglǐ | cāng | lǐ |
| I | put in | above head | above | luggage | hold | inside |
Notes:
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放 到 (fàng dào) means “to put in” and is made up of the characters “put”放 (fàng) and “to”到 (dào), some examples:- “put the kids to bed”
把 孩 子 (bǎ háizi fàng dào chuángshàng shuì) - ”she put (it) in the rubbish bin”
她 (tā fàng dào zài lèsè tǒng lǐ)
- “put the kids to bed”
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上 方 (shàngfāng) means above, examples for this are:- “above the blackboard is a clock”
黑 板 (hēibǎn shàngfāng yǒu yīgè shízhōng); literally “blackboard above is a clock” - ”above you”
在 你 的 (zài nǐ de shàngfāng)
- “above the blackboard is a clock”
Vocabulary
Dialogue Vocabulary
| English | Chinese | Pronunciation (Pinyin) |
| flight attendant |
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chéngwùyuán |
| customer |
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gùkè |
| welcome |
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huānyíng |
| aboard |
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dēng jī |
| to sit |
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zuò |
| business class |
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gōngwù cāng |
| economy class |
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jīngjì cāng |
| or (question) |
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háishì |
| can / to be able to |
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néng |
| look at / take a quick look at |
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kàn yīxià |
| boarding pass |
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dēng jī pái |
| okay / yes |
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hǎo de |
| seat |
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zuòwèi |
| seat number |
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zuòwèi biānhào |
| this way |
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zhè biān |
| thank you |
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xièxiè |
| to help |
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bāngzhù |
| luggage / bags |
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xínglǐ |
| overhead compartment |
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tóudǐng shàngfāng de xínglǐ cāng |
| inside |
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lǐ |
| put in |
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fàng dào |
Phrases
Dialogue Phrases
| English | Chinese | Pronunciation (Pinyin) |
| Welcome aboard |
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huānyíng dēng jī. |
| Business or economy? |
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zuò gōngwù háishì jīngjì cāng? |
| Economy Class. |
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jīngjì cāng. |
| May I see your boarding pass？ |
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wǒ néng kàn yīxià nín de dēng jī pái ma? |
| Okay. Your seat number is 28A. This way，please。 |
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hǎo de, nǐ de zuòwèi biānhào shì èrshíbā A. zhè biān qǐng. |
| Thank you. |
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xièxiè. |
| Do you need help with your bags? |
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nín xūyào wǒ bāngzhù nín ná xínglǐ ma? |
| Yes, thank you. |
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hǎo de, xièxiè. |
| I’ll put them in the overhead compartment. |
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wǒ fàng dào tóudǐng shàngfāng de xínglǐ cāng lǐ. |
Wrapping it up
Be sure to check out Part 3 where I cover the in-flight meal and beverage service.