🇹🇼 In Taiwan, 你好 is understood but can sound a bit textbooky with strangers. In many everyday situations, people often just start with 不好意思 or go straight to the question.
🇹🇼 不好意思 is extremely useful in Taiwan: it can mean "excuse me," "sorry," or a soft way to get someone's attention. It often sounds warmer and less heavy than 對不起.
💬 Adjectives can be the whole sentence in Chinese, so 好吃 already means "It's delicious" with no extra word for "is." You can build others the same way, like 好喝 for drinks.
💬 幾位？ literally means "how many people?" using the polite people counter 位. You'll hear the same pattern in 幾個？ for things, but for customers 位 sounds better.
💬 位 (wèi) is the polite counting word for people, used by staff and when giving your party size: 三位 "three people". Use 兩 (liǎng), not 二, before a counting word.
🇹🇼 When staff greet you with 幾位？ "how many?", answering 兩位 or just holding up fingers is perfectly normal.
💬 Add 嗎 (ma) to the end of any statement to turn it into a yes/no question: 有水嗎？ "is there water?". To answer, just repeat the verb: 有 "yes" or 沒有 "no".
💬 Question words stay where the answer would go, so 什麼 (shén me) "what" sits after the verb, just as an answer would: 我推薦牛肉麵 "I recommend beef noodles".
🇹🇼 Asking this is welcome at small family-run shops, and staff will often point to their signature dish.
💬 Use number + container + food to order: 碗 (wǎn) is "bowl", so 兩碗飯 means "two bowls of rice". Here 一 is read (yì) because it comes before a third-tone word.
🇹🇼 Taiwanese drink shops let you choose your sweetness level, from full sugar down through less sugar, half sugar, a little sugar, and no sugar. Half sugar is a popular middle choice.
🇹🇼 Night markets, small eateries, and street stalls are often cash-only, so it's worth asking before ordering; transit cards like EasyCard also work at many convenience stores.
💬 只收現金 literally means "only accepts cash," and Chinese often leaves out the subject when it's obvious. You'll see the same pattern in signs like 只收台幣.
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