The Most Useful Chinese Phrases and Questions to Take a Taxi

The most popular app Chinese people use to order taxis is “滴滴打车” (Dīdī Dǎ Chē), which is “Didi Taxi” in English. It’s so convenient that many foreigners living in China have also started to use it. If you would also like to order a taxi using Didi Taxi in the future, here are the five Chinese phrases and questions you might need in order to communicate with Chinese taxi drivers.

Chinese Phrases and Questions to Ask About Arrival and License Plate Number

1. Have you arrived?

Imagine such a scenario, you’ve been waiting at the pickup point for 10 minutes but the taxi driver hasn’t turned up yet. In this case, the question “你到了吗?” (Nǐ dào le ma?) is what you need to ask about his location. “到” (dào) means “to arrive”, and verb + “了” (le) represents the past tense. Therefore, When you’re about to arrive at the destination, one of the Chinese phrases that you can say to the taxi driver is “到了” (dào le), which literally means “arrived”.

2. What is your license plate number?

你的车牌号是多少？
Nǐ de chēpáihào shì duōshao?
What is your license plate number?

When it comes to taking a taxi, there are many Chinese phrases you can use in order to get more information about the car and the taxi driver. Sometimes it’s a good idea to find out the license plate number of the cab that you’ve ordered so that you can make sure which cab you’re expecting. What you need to ask is “你的车牌号是多少?” (Nǐ de chēpáihào shì duōshao?). In this question, “车牌号” (chēpáihào) means “license plate number”, and “多少” (duōshao) means “how many/how much”. It’s easy to understand a license plate number on the phone because all the numbers contained in it are read one by one.

Chinese Phrases and Questions to Ask About Direction

1. Go straight ahead

一直走。
Yīzhí zǒu.
Go straight ahead.

When you are in a cab, sometimes it’s necessary for you to give directions in that the driver might not have a clear idea where exactly you want to go. There are different Chinese phrases you can use depending on the situation. One of the typical Chinese phrases you need to learn in terms of giving directions would be “一直走，然后左拐” (Yīzhí zǒu, ránhòu zuǒ guǎi), which means “go straight ahead, and then turn left”. The last part of this phrase can be replaced by some other words, and the word order can also be changed depending on what you would like the driver to do.

Examples:

一直走，然后左拐。
Yīzhí zǒu, ránhòu zuǒ guǎi.
Go straight ahead, and then turn left.

一直走，然后右拐。
Yīzhí zǒu, ránhòu yòu guǎi.
Go straight ahead, and then turn right.

 左拐，然后停车。

Zuǒ guǎi, ránhòu tíng chē.
Turn left, and then stop the car.

Vocabulary

一直走
yīzhí zǒu
go straight ahead 

然后
ránhòu
and then

停车
tíng chē
to stop the car

2. Turn left when you reach the intersection

Sometimes you might have some specific requirements as to when or where you would like the taxi driver to make a turn. One of the Chinese phrases that may come in handy would be “到路口左拐” (dào lùkǒu zuǒ guǎi), which means “turn left after reaching the intersection”. In terms of the sentence structure, what you need to bear in mind is that the location (where you want the driver to make a turn) comes before the verb.

3. Stop here

When you are about to arrive at the destination, this is one of the Chinese phrases you can use to tell the driver that you want to get off the car. In this phrase, “停” (tíng) means ” to stop”, and “这里” (zhèlǐ) means “here”.

We hope you’ve learned a little bit more about China. To find out more useful Chinese phrases about China and Chinese culture, check out one of our blog posts 5 Interesting Facts About Time in China