Know the Origins (1) – Long Time No See

As we all know, the English language has borrowed extensively from different languages. Let’s have a look at some expressions that have originated from Chinese.

The expression we’re going to learn today is ‘long time no see’, which came from “好久不见”(hǎo jiǔ bú jiàn).

01 long time no see

好：Here, “好” does not mean ‘good’. It means ‘quite’, ‘rather’.
久：a long time
不：no, not
见：meet, see

Here’s a simple dialogue:

02 long time no see
03 long time no see

Hǎo jiǔ bú jiàn!
A： 好久不见！
Long time no see!

Hǎo jiǔ bú jiàn!
B： 好久不见！
Long time no see!

Nǐ hǎo ma?
A： 你好吗？
How are you?

Hěn hǎo, nǐ ne?
B： 很好，你呢？
I’m fine, and you?

Hái hǎo.
A： 还好。
Not bad.