# Elementary | I don't smoke

An episode of [ChinesePod - Beginner](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1489328856), 15 Apr 2026, 14 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/109bf914/podcast/play/118424936/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-3-14%2Fc7cd79b2-7177-1a09-5a2f-121567a94fc2.mp3

If you come to China, you're going to be offered a cigarette. While you can get by on context and gestures, it's nice to know how to politely decline. While you're at it, you smokers out there can also learn how to ask for a light in Chinese. Episode link: https://www.chinesepod.com/1672

## Transcript

[0:07] That's the way to. Learn Chinese.
[0:09] That's the way to learn Chinese. Hi, you're listening to Chinese
[0:25] Pod. This is an elementary lesson and
[0:27] my name is. John, and my name is Dilu.
[0:29] Today we're going to talk about smoking.
[0:31] And not smoking. In Chinese we say.
[0:36] Cho Yin, Cho Yin. So Cho yin is the verb which
[0:41] means to smoke. Literally it means to suck
[0:45] smoke, right? You can remember the word that
[0:48] way, but try to remember it as a whole thing.
[0:53] Yeah, like one word, right? But I love how in Chinese it's
[0:56] so unglamorous. You're sucking smoke.
[0:59] All right, so the two parts to this word, what tones are they?
[1:06] OK, so two first tones. Chow Yin.
[1:10] Chow Yin. All right, So I think you can
[1:12] anticipate how this dialogue is going to go somewhat.
[1:15] Let's listen three times. DRPN.
[1:59] Oh. No.
[2:38] Now the. Translation here.
[2:42] Have a cigarette? Here, have a smoke.
[2:47] Like Chogan Yin BA Buha is Washington bucho yen.
[2:53] Sorry, I don't smoke. Bucho is Washington Bucho Yin.
[2:58] Sorry, I don't smoke. Bucho is Bucho Yin oh na
[3:04] Washington Cho yin MI chi E ma. Oh then if I smoke do you mind?
[3:11] Oh na Washington Cho yin MI chi E ma.
[3:15] Oh, then do you mind if I smoke? Oh, now what?
[3:20] Cho yen MI ZE EMA me Guan si MI choba.
[3:26] It doesn't matter you smoke. Me Guan si nichoba.
[3:32] No problem, smoke. Me Guan si nichoba.
[3:40] Oh, I didn't bring a lighter. Aya may die, whore.
[3:46] Oh no, I don't have a light. Yeah, may die whore all.
[3:51] Right, so lots of useful vocabulary in this lesson.
[3:54] If you're a smoker, you need to learn this stuff.
[3:57] I think this girl's kind of manly.
[4:00] Yeah, do all Chinese women go around offering guys smokes?
[4:03] Not me, not too many. So this girl offers a cigarette
[4:09] to this guy, she says. Lie Chogan Yun BA.
[4:13] Yeah. So this light second tone, that
[4:15] means come, right? Or here it's just to catch
[4:19] people's attention. OK, so you want someone to pay
[4:22] attention to what you're offering them so you can say
[4:24] lie. Like I often hear people saying
[4:27] this before they tell you to eat right, here's food, eat it.
[4:33] OK, but in this case it's cigarette.
[4:35] So that phrase was. Chogan Yamba.
[4:40] Chogan Yamba. OK, now in the intro to the
[4:42] lesson we said Cho yen means to smoke.
[4:45] To suck smoke. Yeah, suck smoke, but here we
[4:48] have Cho Gun yen. So how do you explain that Ah.
[4:51] This gun is the measure word for cigarettes.
[4:55] So it's have a cigarette, not just smoke.
[5:00] But Cho gun yen, Cho gun yen. OK, gun first tone, right?
[5:06] Do I? So all three of those syllables
[5:07] are first tone. Should that Cho gun yen OK, now
[5:12] we're not. Going to analyze this too much.
[5:15] If you're a smoker then you probably want to memorize this.
[5:19] If you're not a smoker, you just need to understand it.
[5:22] Let's look at this last character.
[5:25] Yeah, the BA. Actually, I think it's an
[5:28] invitation. Yeah, so you're inviting someone
[5:31] to have a smoke with you? Chogan Yamba.
[5:34] Chogan Yamba. All right.
[5:36] And the response is not no, it's.
[5:40] Boo how is Boo how is? So literally, it's kind of like
[5:45] I'm embarrassed, but it's more like, excuse me.
[5:47] Sorry, OK. So the standard negative form,
[5:54] you put Boo in front of the verb so I don't smoke.
[5:58] Should that wah Boo Cho yen, wah Boo Cho yen?
[6:03] OK. And then the reply is.
[6:06] I like this part, she says. Now what?
[6:09] Cho yen me Tia yima. So Nah, meaning then in that
[6:14] case. So then I smoke.
[6:18] There's an unstated if here, right?
[6:21] You're right. Yeah, she's not actually
[6:23] smoking. She's saying then if I smoke,
[6:28] OK, then if I smoke, what? NI Tia yima.
[6:32] NI Tia yima. OK, so the standard MA question,
[6:35] but the verb here is. All.
[6:40] Right, two 4th tones Tia Yi and this means to mind.
[6:46] So in in Chinese it's pretty common to say what you're going
[6:49] to do and then ask the person, do you mind?
[6:51] Oh shuda shuda na watch ho yen NI Tia yima.
[6:59] Right, so you can put all kinds of things in front of it and
[7:01] then you just tag this question under the and the.
[7:06] Answer's. Make one CMake 1C.
[7:10] OK, it doesn't matter. So in other words, I don't mind.
[7:16] RTF MI chopa. MI chopa.
[7:20] So this BA is kind of like encouraging, like saying go
[7:24] ahead and. Do it.
[7:25] Go ahead. Go ahead and smoke, right?
[7:27] MI Cho BA, MI Cho BA. So I really don't mind that I'm
[7:31] encouraging you to suck down some smoke.
[7:34] And we can say that he says Cho instead of.
[7:37] Cho, yen. OK, so we know we're talking
[7:40] about smoking, so Cho is enough to make it clear, right?
[7:44] MI. Cho BA MI Cho BA.
[7:47] OK, but then a horrible tragedy strikes, right?
[7:50] Do it in way tap may die Hall, may die Hall.
[7:55] Okay, because she didn't bring a light.
[7:59] Or fire. Yeah, she didn't bring fire.
[8:02] So in Chinese, fire refers to. Refers to lighters or matches.
[8:08] Okay, just like a light in English.
[8:09] Do I? And we're just having a
[8:11] conversation in English. Have a light that doesn't mean
[8:13] tongue like like a lamp. It.
[8:17] Means a utensil for creating a fire, a light.
[8:20] Right, so. They're very similar in English
[8:21] and Chinese. All right.
[8:25] So I didn't bring fire. May die 2nd, 4th, right?
[8:30] And. Then Hua is.
[8:32] The sunshine Hua all. Right, third tongue.
[8:35] May die Hua. OK, I don't have a light.
[8:40] I didn't bring a lighter or anything to light a cigarette
[8:43] with. OK, I think this dialogue is
[8:45] pretty clear. Yeah, we're going to go over
[8:47] some some other ways to use these phrases after we listen to
[8:50] the dialogue 3 more times. Greetings everyone and welcome
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[9:40] DPN. The RPN.
[10:35] All right, so. Let's
[10:56] review a little bit. If you're inviting someone to
[10:58] smoke with you, you would say. Lie Chogan Yamba.
[11:03] Lie Chogan Yamba and. Because you're saying lie, you
[11:06] should be offering a cigarette at the same time, right?
[11:08] Yes, yes. Otherwise, it's kind of.
[11:09] Weird. OK.
[11:13] And then this question, do you mind how do we ask that again?
[11:16] NI tier E ma NI tier E ma. Now can I answer this question
[11:22] saying I don't mind? K yeah.
[11:25] You can say. Wah boutier E, boutier E.
[11:30] OK, can I say I mind? What Tia E.
[11:35] Yes, of course you can say that, but sounds pretty rude.
[11:39] OK, if you want to be rude, you can say it that way, huh?
[11:41] Do you say that in English? Yes, I do mind.
[11:45] Some people would say that in the United States we're kind of
[11:49] anti smoking right now. Any smoker will tell you that.
[11:51] Whatever. All right.
[11:54] And then the last thing I want to ask about is how do you say I
[11:57] don't have a light? I didn't bring a light.
[11:59] May die Hua. May die Hua.
[12:03] Now if you want to ask someone, do you have a light?
[12:05] How do you ask? That that's quite easy.
[12:07] Yohua ma. Yohua, MA.
[12:10] So do you have fire? Or do you have a lighter?
[12:14] OK, got it. And so finally, let's make a
[12:17] cultural comment. Here in this dialogue, we have a
[12:20] woman inviting a guy to smoke with her, right?
[12:23] So is that weird or what? Well, I don't see why it's
[12:26] weird. I don't see a lot of women
[12:28] smoking in China, I got to say. But in America?
[12:33] There are more women smoking in the States, yeah.
[12:35] Do they offer men cigarettes like that?
[12:37] I don't know. I'm not a smoker.
[12:38] I'm not in a little circle of. Oh but you have a lot, but you
[12:42] have a lot of female Co workers who smokes, right?
[12:46] Yeah, but they know I don't smoke so.
[12:48] They never offer. Well, I don't think this is very
[12:53] common, but it does happen sometimes.
[12:56] Wait, so let me ask you, do women ever invite you to smoke
[12:58] with them in Chinese? Well, actually, sometimes at my
[13:03] work really, some of them are not Chinese.
[13:08] OK, so men will invite women to smoke with them.
[13:11] Women will invite women to smoke with them.
[13:13] Mm. Hmm.
[13:15] Well, but after they know that you don't smoke, they'll never
[13:17] do that again. OK.
[13:18] So I think this is like international thing.
[13:22] OK. Well, if you guys have any
[13:23] questions about this or any stories to share, please come to
[13:26] chinesepod.com and let us have them.
[13:29] We're happy to see your comments there.
[13:31] All right, so we'll see you next time.
[13:36] As usual, Chinese Pod provides an extensive selection of
[13:39] learning materials for this lesson on its website,
[13:42] www.chinesepod.com. You can access this lesson
[13:46] directly with the lesson number 1672.
[13:50] So just go to www.chinesepod.com/one 672 and
[13:56] you will find a transcript, vocabulary and much more.
[13:59] The link again www.chinesepod.com/one 672.

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