Chinese vocabulary for loved ones

Erin

Happy Valentine's Day! Here are some terms for loved ones from our e-tutor, Péi Lù.

These three terms are generally used for formal situations.

爱人 Ài rén (husband or wife 爱 love 人 person)
先生 xiān shēng (husband, Mr., gentleman)  
太太 tài tài (wife)

These terms are informal, but husbands and wives don’t use them to call each other

夫妻  fū qī (couple)
丈夫  zhàng fū (husband)
妻子 qī zi (wife)

Lǎo gōng and lǎo pó are the most common terms for husband and wife in
daily life and are also used by husbands and wives to call each other.

老公  lǎo gōng (husband)             
老婆 lǎo pó (wife)
老公！我想你！lǎo gōng! Wǒ xiǎng nǐ! (Husband! I miss you!)
男朋友 nán péngyǒu (boy friend)
女朋友 nǚ péngyǒu (girlfriend)

Grace_R

I would also say the 3 informal terms are used to describ the relationship and not for greeting. For example, you say Lin xian sheng han(4) Lin tai tai for Mr & Mrs Lin.  I have NEVER heard anyone say Lin zhang fu han(4) Lin qi zi.But if you are describing the relationship, I am sure you can say ta shi(4) wo de xian sheng.....or ta shi(4) wo de zhang fu for he is my husband.  Sorry about putting the numbers.  I don't know how to type with those accent ono the top!

PeiLu

Grace, Thank you for pointing that out! It’s something important to keep in mind!!!

It’s OK to use the numbers to indicate the tones. One way to add the tones to the pinyin is through Chinese-Tools.com. You can type a word or a phrase in pinyin with the number of the tone behind and click convert. Then the pinyin with the tone marks will show in Result
http://www.chinese-tools.com/tools/converter-pinyin-unicode.html

By the way, what do you mean by han(4) in “ Lin xian sheng han(4)” ?

All of the terms above can be used to describe the relationship between loved ones
他是我的先生 tā shì wǒ de xiānshēng (He is my husband.)
这是我的妻子 zhè shì wǒ de qīzi (This is my wife.)
她是我的老婆 tā shì wǒ de lǎopó (She is my wife.)
我们是男女朋友 wǒmen shì nán nǚ péngyǒu (We are boyfriend and girlfriend.)

However, 先生 xiānshēng and 太太tàitài are also used for greeting people
王先生早上好！ wáng xiānshēng! zǎoshang hǎo! (Good Morning Mr. Wang)
林太太！ 明天见！lín tàitài! míngtiān jiàn! (Mrs. Lin! See you tomorrow!)
再见李先生！ zàijiàn li xiānshēng! (Good Buy Mr. Li)

Grace_R

Hi PeiLu!  I had this character in mind, 和.  I understand it can be pronounced as han(4) or he(2) for the meaning of and.  It is also not the only correct character that can be used to say "and", right?  I don't mean to confuse any Chinese learner here, but this is one  reason why learning Chinese is fun :-) 

PeiLu

Grace! Please don't worry about that and ask away. Your questions open up new topics of discussion and they are all useful for learning Chinese.

和 as hé and hàn both mean "and"
hàn is colloquial and it is generally used in Taiwan, while hé is used by people from mainland China. hàn is also not considered standard.

I'll make a list for other characters used for "and".

Roe

Wo Xiang Ni!  I like that expression.

I have a question: how can I download a way to write the accents easily when typing?  Is there a way to do that?   What about the Chinese characters?

Xie Xie!

-Monroe