In this lesson we’ll look at vocabulary and phrases you’ll need for filling up you car with petrol (or gas for those of us from North America).
Table of Contents
Chinese Petrol Station Dialogue
Lets look at a a few short dialogues relating to needing to fill the car with petrol, filling up and paying. An explanation of each sentence can be found in the explandable breakdown below each line of the dialogue.
Running out of petrol
我的车没油了。 wǒ de chē méi yóu le. I’m running out of petrol (gas).
我的 wǒ de
my By adding the possessive particle 的 (de) to “I” or “me” 我 (wǒ) it changes the meaning to “my”. You can read more about possessive particle 的 (de) in our post on how to use de in Chinese.
车 chē
car You will sometimes see car written as 汽车 (qìchē), which refers to a car, while 车 (chē) more generically refers to all types of vehicles and could refer to a bus, taxi, train, etc. Obviously given the context it is understood the speaker is talking about the car they are driving in.
没 méi
doesn’t have petrol (gas) Here 没 (méi) means “doesn’t have” and 油 (yóu) means “petrol (gas)”. You might think that this should be 没有 (méiyǒu), which means “don’t have”, however in this situation the speaker is literally saying “don’t have petrol”. When spoken the tones vary as 油 (yóu) has a rising (second ) tone while 有 (yǒu) has an inflected (third) tone. We explain tones in our beginners course.
油 yóu
petrol / gas The 油 (yóu) can mean petrol (gas) or oil. Dont
了 le
The 了 (le) character shows that there has been a change of state, that is the car used to have petrol, but now it doesn’t. With the use of 了 (le) the meaning would be simply that the car doesn’t and never did have petrol.
附近有加油站吗？ fùjìn yǒu jiāyóuzhàn ma? Is there a petrol (gas) station nearby?
附近 fùjìn
nearby Both characters here mean “nearby”, however, as is common in Chinese, the word uses two character as it sounds nicer. Check out our post Are Chinese characters words?
有 yǒu
have This is the character for have, and is a very common word in Chinese. The opposte of “have” is “don’t have” 没有 (méiyǒu)
加油站 jiāyóuzhàn
petrol station You may have come across the phrase 加油 (jiāyóu), which, when referring to petrol means means “fill petrol”, or more literally “add” 加 (jiā) + “petrol” 油 (yóu). 站 (zhàn) means station, tranforming the meaning to “fill petrol station”; you may have more commonly see 站 (zhàn) used to mean a train or bus station, for example “train station” 火车站 (huǒchēzhàn) Note: 加油 (jiāyóu) is commonly used to cheer someone on, for example in spoorts, but this isn’t the meaning here.
吗 ma
<question> 吗 (ma) turns this into a question “is there a petrol station nearby?”, while removing 吗 (ma) would make this a statement “there is a petrol station nearby”
我不知道。 wǒ bù zhīdào. I don’t know.
我 wǒ
I
不知道 bù zhīdào
don’t know 知道 (zhīdào) means “know”, while 不 (bù) means “not”, thus changing “know” to “don’t know” or “not know”.
附近肯定有。 fùjìn kěndìng yǒu. There must be one nearby.
surely 肯定 (kěndìng) is a very common word and means “definitely”, “surely” or “certainly”
有 yǒu
has
你看，那边有！ nǐ kàn, nàbian yǒu! Look, there’s one!
你 nǐ
you
看 kàn
see 看 (kàn) can mean “see”, “look”, “watch” or “read”. You may also see this character repeated, as in “you look” 你看看 (nǐ kànkan), this sounds nicer but doesn’t change the meaning
那边 nàbian
there (that side) Literally 那边 (nàbian) means “that side” i.e. “that” 那 (nà) + “side” 边 (biān). In the context of this situation the person is referring to one side of the road and probably pointing, “that side has one”.
有 yǒu
has (one) In English we would say “has a petrol statoin” or “has one”, however Chinese is a very contextual language, thus given that both people in this conversation know they are looking for a petrol station, just saying “has” and implying “a petrol station” is sufficient and a common way of expressing this.
Filling up with petrol
你好，我要加油。 nǐhǎo, wǒ yào jiāyóu. Hello, I’d like some petrol.
你好 nǐhǎo
hello In this conversation you would imagine the speaker is talking to a petrol pump attendant.
我 wǒ
I
要 yào
want
加油 jiāyóu
to fill petrol Literally this is “add petrol”.
你要多少升？ nǐ yào duōshǎo shēng? How many litres do you want?
你 nǐ
you
要 yào
want
多少 duōshǎo
how many
升 shēng
litres 升 (shēng) and 公升 (gōngshēng) mean “litre”, although literally 公升 (gōngshēng) means “common litre”; you will see this with units that have imperial and metric meanings, for example a traditional 斤 (jīn) was about 600 grams or 1⅓ pounds, however a modern metric 斤 (jīn) is exactly half a kilogram, where again 公 (gōng) can be used to denote a metric “jin” as in 公近 (gōng jìn). Had we wanted to say a gallon we wouldhave said 加仑 (jiālún), which is loan word which sounds like “gallon”, thus the individual characters are not selected for their meaning but for their pronunciation.
四十升的无铅汽油。谢谢。 sìshí shēng de wú qiān qìyóu. xièxie. Forty litres of unleaded. Thank you.
unleaded Literally this is “without” 无 (wú) + “lead” 铅 (qiān)
汽油 qìyóu
petrol / gas This word is made up of “fume” 汽 (qì) + “oil” 油 (yóu), which is a suitable meaning. You will have likely seen the character “fume” 汽 (qì) in the word for “car” 汽车 (qìchē), literally “fume car”.
谢谢 xièxie
thank you
好。 hǎo. Okay.
好 hǎo
okay 好 (hǎo) means “good”, but can also mean “okay”
100 Yuan (RMB) or dollars 一百 (yī bǎi) means “one hundred” and 一百钱 (yī bǎi qián) means “money”, although not necessarily just Chinese yuan, it can also mean dollars or other currencies.
我可以刷卡吗？ wǒ kěyǐ shuākǎ ma? Can I pay by credit card?
我 wǒ
I
可以 kěyǐ
can
刷卡 shuākǎ
use a credit card Literally this means “swipe card” where 刷 (shuā) means “swipe” and 卡 (kǎ) means card. What this means in this sentence is to more generally use a credit card.
吗 ma
<question> This character changes this from the statement “I’ll use a credit card” to the question “Can I use a credit card?”
当然可以。 dāngrán kěyǐ. Of course.
当然可以 dāngrán kěyǐ
Of course you can This is a set phrase and means “of course” 当然 (dāngrán) + “you can” 可以 (kěyǐ), but should be remembered together.
谢谢。 xièxie. Thank you.
谢谢 xièxie
thank you
需要发票吗？ xūyào fāpiào ma? Do you need a receipt?
(do you) need “do you” is implied, while 需要 (xūyào) means “need”. need
发票 fāpiào
receipt A 发票 (fāpiào) is an official invoice. By themselves 发 (fā) means “send” or “issue” and 票 (piào) means “ticket”, however 发票 (fāpiào) should be remember as a set phrase. You may have come across the word 收据 (shōujù), which is a less official cash register receitp or hand written receipt.
吗 ma
<question> 吗 (ma) is a particle (character) that makes this a question rather than a statement, that is “(do you) need a receipt” instead of “(I) need a receipt” if 吗 (ma) is ommitted.
不需要。谢谢。 bù xūyào. xièxie. No need. Thank you.
不需要 bù xūyào
(I) don’t need (a receipt) This is literally “don’t need” where the word “need” 需要 (xūyào) is made negative by adding the “not” or negative prefix character 不 (bù). As is common in Chinese, the response is concise, so it’s not necessary to say “I don’t need a receipt” 我不需要一张发票 (wǒ bù xūyào yī zhāng fāpiào) (张 is a classifier for flat things likes receipts); this is very similar to English where we’d simply say “no”, in Chinese simply saying 谢谢 xièxie
