请 qǐng — Polite Imperatives
请 qǐng + Verb turns a plain command into a polite request — the Chinese equivalent of adding “please” before an instruction.
Put 请 qǐng right before the verb you want someone to do — that’s the whole structure.
1 请 qǐng + Verb (+ Object)
请问 qǐngwèn (“may I ask”) is a special, extremely common combination — it’s the standard polite way to open a question to a stranger, like asking for directions.
2 Beyond 请 qǐng — What Actually Sounds Polite
请进、请坐、请喝茶 work well for guests. But if you say 请 qǐng + a command to close friends or family, it’s still, grammatically, a command — even with 请 qǐng attached, it can land as less polite than you’d expect. To make a request sound natural and polite in everyday Chinese, the usual move is to turn it into a question, or add 一下 yíxià to make it feel light and casual.
With people close to you, a question (可以…吗？) or a light 一下 yíxià softens a request far more than 请 qǐng does — save 请 qǐng for guests, strangers, and formal situations.
3 Common Mistakes
4 Practice
Translate each sentence into Chinese, then tap the card to check your answer.
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