Getting through the Exit-Entry Bureau: Asking when to collect your passport

🇨🇳 Say this as you hand something over, ideally with both hands, which comes across as respectful at an official counter.

💬 Chinese has no single word for "yes". You answer by repeating the verb from the question, so 有 answers 您有回执吗.

💬 材料 (cái liào) literally means "materials". In offices it means the whole stack of required paperwork, such as forms, photos and copies.

💬 什么时候 (shén me shí hou) sits right before the verb, not at the start of the sentence: 你什么时候来? "When are you coming?"

💬 Wrap a detail of a past action in 是…的 to ask or tell when, where or how it happened: 您是什么时候来的 "when did you come?". Here 的 can sit before the object, giving 交的材料.

💬 上 means "last" and 下 means "next" for weeks and months: 上个月 "last month", 下个星期 "next week".

💬 Weekdays are simply 星期 plus a number, so Monday is 星期一 and Wednesday is 星期三. Sunday is the exception: 星期天 or 星期日.

💬 一 changes tone here: before a falling-tone word like 般 it's said (yì bān), not (yī bān).

🇨🇳 Working days exclude weekends and public holidays. Around Chinese New Year or National Day, seven working days can stretch to two weeks or more.

💬 Here 要 (yào) means "takes" for amounts of time or money: 要两天 "takes two days", 要五十块 "costs fifty yuan".

💬 周 (zhōu) is a shorter alternative to 星期, so 下周五 is the same as 下星期五.

💬 来 (lái) plus another verb means "come and do": 来拿 "come and pick up", 来看 "come and see". Ending with 吧 (ba) softens it into a friendly suggestion rather than an order.

💬 几点 (jǐ diǎn) asks "what time" on the clock, while 什么时候 asks "when" in general. Use 几点 when you want an hour.

💬 The part of the day comes before the hour, the reverse of English: 上午九点 is literally "morning nine o'clock".

💬 都 (dōu) sums up everything mentioned before it as "all". 都可以 works for any set of options: "either is fine", "any is fine".

💬 A到B gives a range, "from A to B": 一点到三点 "one to three o'clock".

🇨🇳 Many bureaus close for a lunch break around 12 to 1:30. "Any time" in practice may still skip lunch, so check before you go.

💬 In a question with 吗, 什么 (shén me) means "anything" rather than "what": 带什么吗 is "bring anything?".

💬 张 (zhāng) is the counting word for flat things like tickets, paper and photos: 一张照片 "a photo".

💬 Put 就行 (jiù xíng) after an action to say that's all it takes: 给我打电话就行 "just call me".

💬 不 stays (bù) here because 客 is a falling tone, so it's actually (bú kè qi).