What are the common ice-breaker sentences in Chinese?

Question

There are sentences in English like "What's up?" "What's going on?" "how have you been?" to begin a conversation with or to greet people (friends or relatives)

So what are the common ice-breaker sentences in Chinese?

Most basic greetings can easily be found online, though. http://www.linguanaut.com/english_chinese.htm — user76935, May 29 '14 at 20:16

score 7 · Answer 1 · answered May 28 '14 at 15:07

7

Here are a few ice-breaker sentences:

最近怎么样？（Literally "recently how"? = How've you been recently?）

最近好吗？（Literally recently good?）

最近忙什么？(Literally recently busy what? = What have you been busy for?)

answered May 28 '14 at 15:07

ChineseHulu.com

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score 5 · Answer 2 · edited Sep 05 '16 at 17:52

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The weather is a good topic for people living in a city.

For example:

今儿天不错啊。

今天热死了。

看起来一会儿要下雨是吧？

edited Sep 05 '16 at 17:52

Don Kirkby

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answered May 29 '14 at 09:19

user4659

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Don't believe this is an answer. Clarify to prove me wrong. – user76935 May 29 '14 at 20:10
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It is useful somehow like you can say "今儿天不错啊"、“今天热死了”，“看起来一会儿要下雨是吧？” – Michael Yin May 30 '14 at 06:43
I added your examples to the answer, @MichaelYin. Thanks for the suggestion. – Don Kirkby Sep 05 '16 at 17:53

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered May 29 '14 at 00:54

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When you see someone you know but they seem busy:

去哪儿？

Everyone else:

吃饭了没？

answered May 29 '14 at 00:54

Mou某

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Note that "吃饭了没?" is no longer a common ice-breaker in most cities (especially in south China) – dumbfingers May 29 '14 at 09:45
rly? The guards at our apartment complex ask us this everyday! (Yuh we live in the south) – Mou某 May 29 '14 at 09:54

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 14 '14 at 14:47

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你怎么样？ - How are you?

(for a person you just met) - 你是哪里人？ - What province are you from?

answered Aug 14 '14 at 14:47

theK_S

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score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 18 '14 at 06:58

If you here mean "ice-breaker" is " Something that can break the ice while talking in a senario or environment that makes people very stupid or embarrassed. You can say:

1) 没和我开玩笑吧？(Are you kidding？！)：Used when you feel ver surprised at something or something very awful that you don't expect to happen.

2) Invite someone to have a dinner with you (Even if you are not good with someone but you wanna have a talk with him, that's what Chinese people are glad to do).

However, if you wanna know something to be used when you wanna start a topic with a man not familiar to you, here are some tips:

1) 可以借个火吗？(If you see the man is smoking, you can say this to have a talk with him for the following things). 2) 你好，饭吃了吗？(You don't need to invite him/her to have a dinner but just a greeting sentence for your following talk).

What are the common ice-breaker sentences in Chinese?

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