Telling my landlord the hot water is broken: Explaining the problem

🇹🇼 不好意思 is the go-to softener in Taiwan for interrupting or asking a favor, and it's gentler than 對不起 "I'm sorry". Starting a request to your landlord with it sounds natural and considerate.

💬 With close things like home or family, 我家 often drops the 的. You'd say 我家 or 我媽媽 "my mom" rather than 我的家.

💬 了 here shows a change has happened: it used to work and now it's broken. The same pattern works with 手機壞了 "my phone broke".

💬 Question words stay where the answer would go, so 什麼時候 sits right before the verb, just like 昨天晚上 does in the reply.

💬 The 的 at the end puts the focus on the details of something that already happened, such as when it began. Compare 你什麼時候來的？ "When did you get here?"

💬 Time words go big to small: 昨天 "yesterday" + 晚上 "evening". The same goes for 明天早上 "tomorrow morning".

💬 器 (qì) at the end turns a thing into the device that handles it: 熱水器 is a hot-water device. Compare 電熱水器 "electric water heater".

💬 In Taiwan, 有 before a verb is common for asking whether something was done. On the mainland people would say 打開了嗎？ instead.

🇹🇼 Many Taiwanese apartments use gas water heaters mounted on the balcony that make a clicking or whooshing sound when they ignite. That's why the landlord asks whether it's on, and why silence is a telling clue.

💬 都 before 沒有 strengthens the negative to mean "not at all". Compare 他都沒來 "he never came at all".

💬 那 (nà) at the start of a reply means "in that case", not "that". It's a handy way to draw a conclusion from what someone just said.

💬 Time words like 明天 go right after the subject and before the verb: 我明天找人, not "I find someone tomorrow".

💬 去 before another verb means "go and do it". Compare 去買 "go buy" and 去看 "go see".

🇹🇼 In Taiwan the landlord normally arranges and pays for repairs to built-in appliances like water heaters, so expecting this offer is reasonable.

💬 呢 at the end softens a question so it sounds natural and conversational rather than blunt.

💬 The part of the day comes before the hour: 早上十點 is literally "morning ten o'clock". Likewise 下午三點 means "3 p.m.".

💬 Add 可以嗎？ after any suggestion to ask whether it works: 明天可以嗎？ "Is tomorrow OK?"

💬 在 works here as a verb meaning "to be at", so 在家 means "be at home" with no other verb needed. Compare 我在公司 "I'm at the office".

💬 不會 (bú huì) means "not at all" here, as a reply to thanks or an apology. Note that 不 changes to (bú) before the falling tone of 會 (huì).

🇹🇼 Taiwanese people often answer 謝謝 "thank you" with 不會, where mainlanders tend to say 不客氣 "you're welcome".

💬 Put any time word before 見 "see" to say goodbye: 下午見 "see you this afternoon", 週末見 "see you at the weekend".