Mandarin: Food and drink

In Mandarin, there are two important verbs to remember for food and drink:

• 吃chī – eat

• 喝hē – drink

While this is the same as English, it does mean that there are two different ways to say delicious in Mandarin:

• 好吃hǎo chī – good to eat

• 好喝hǎo hē – good to drink

You can add 很hěn (very) to the beginning of these phrases too.

To say what food and drink you do or do not like in Mandarin use:

• 我喜欢吃Wǒ xǐ huān chī – I like to eat…

• 我喜欢喝Wǒ xǐ huān hē – I like to drink…

• 我不喜欢吃Wǒ bù xǐ huān chī – I don’t like to eat…

• 我不喜欢喝Wǒ bù xǐ huān hē – I don’t like to drink…

You can complete the sentences with some of the following foods and drinks:

If you like orange juice, but you don’t like vegetables, try the following in Mandarin:

• 我喜欢喝橙汁Wǒ xǐ huān hē chéng zhī – I like drinking orange juice

• 我不喜欢吃蔬菜Wǒ bù xǐ huān chī shū cài – I don’t like eating vegetables

To combine these two statements, 但是dàn shì (however) can be used.

You can also talk about food and drink in Mandarin using:

• 我想Wǒ xiǎng – I want to…

• 我不想Wǒ bù xiǎng – I don’t want to

For example:

• 我想吃薯条Wǒ xiǎng chī shǔ tiáo – I want to eat chips

• 我不想喝水Wǒ bù xiǎng hē shuǐ – I don’t want to drink water