Hostage Negotiations: Hostage: A Cat
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Key Phrases
情感支持動物
qíng gǎn zhī chí dòng wù
Emotional support animal
把貓還給
bǎ māo hái gěi
Return the cat
原主人
yuán zhǔ rén
Original owner
Skills You'll Learn
Asking for things politely
有禮貌地請求
yǒu lǐ mào dì qǐng qiú
Understanding animal behavior
理解動物行為
lǐ jiě dòng wù xíng wèi
Expressing feelings and needs
表達感受和需求
biǎo dá gǎn shòu hé xū qiú
Lesson Roleplay
Imagine a scene where a person is caught trying to take someone else's emotional support animal, specifically a cat. The person attempting to take the cat is trying to justify their actions by claiming the cat chose them by having dinner and sleeping on their pillow. However, another individual insists that these actions do not mean the cat has chosen a new owner and urges the person to return the cat to its rightful owner. The person finally concedes, admitting they just wanted a friend.
先生，你不能就這樣拿走別人的情感支持動物。
xiān shēng nǐ bù néng jiù zhè yàng ná zǒu bié rén de qíng gǎn zhī chí dòng wù
Sir, you can't just take someone else's emotional support animal.
但是這隻貓選擇了我。
dàn shì zhè zhī māo xuǎn zé le wǒ
But this cat chose me.
貓是不會選擇的，請你放它回去。
māo shì bù huì xuǎn zé de qǐng nǐ fàng tā huí qù
Cats don't choose. Please put it back.
它跟我一起吃了晚飯！
tā gēn wǒ yì qǐ chī le wǎn fàn
It had dinner with me!
或許它只是餓了。
huò xǔ tā zhǐ shì è le
Maybe it was just hungry.
Lesson Vocabulary & Phrases
先生
xiān shēng
Sir
💬 [先生] can mean [Mr.] before a surname, but by itself it also works like [sir] when addressing a man politely. In Taiwan you'll hear it a lot with service staff or strangers.
See breakdown →你不能
nǐ bù néng
You can't
💬 [不能] is for "cannot / not allowed to," not just simple negation. You can reuse it with other verbs: [你不能進去] "you can't go in" or [我不能喝酒] "I can't drink alcohol."
See breakdown →拿走
ná zǒu
Take
💬 [拿走] is [拿] "take/hold" plus [走], which often adds the idea of taking something away. The same pattern shows up in [搬走] "move away" and [帶走] "take away."
See breakdown →別人的
bié rén de
Someone else's
💬 [別人的] means "someone else's" because [的] turns [別人] into "another person's ..." Put [的] after people or pronouns the same way: [我的] my, [他的] his, [客人的] the customer's.
See breakdown →情感
qíng gǎn
Emotion
支持
zhī chí
Support
動物
dòng wù
Animal
情感支持動物
qíng gǎn zhī chí dòng wù
Emotional support animal
但是
dàn shì
But
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