你会做饭吗

Learning Chinese: How to Ask "Can You Cook?" in Chinese

Chinese Characters: 你会做饭吗？
Pinyin: Nǐ huì zuò fàn ma?
Pronunciation: ni3 hui4 zuo4 fan4 ma5
English Translation: Can you cook?

Usage:

"你会做饭吗？(Nǐ huì zuò fàn ma?)" is a question used to ask someone if they can cook. It can be used in both formal and informal settings.

Example:

Chinese: 你会做饭吗？
Pinyin: Nǐ huì zuò fàn ma?
English: Can you cook?

Variations:

There are a few variations of "你会做饭吗？(Nǐ huì zuò fàn ma?)" that you may hear:

你会做菜吗？(Nǐ huì zuò cài ma?): This variation is also commonly used to ask if someone can cook.
你做饭好吗？(Nǐ zuò fàn hǎo ma?): This variation asks if someone is good at cooking.

Tips for Learning:

Practice saying "你会做饭吗？(Nǐ huì zuò fàn ma?)" out loud to improve your pronunciation.
Listen to native Chinese speakers asking "Can you cook?" to get a sense of the natural rhythm and intonation.
Use "你会做饭吗？(Nǐ huì zuò fàn ma?)" in your daily conversations to practice using it in context.

Additional Notes:

The word "做饭 (zuò fàn)" literally means "to make rice" in Chinese. However, it is commonly used to refer to cooking in general.
If you want to ask someone if they can cook a specific dish, you can say "你会做 [dish name] 吗？(Nǐ huì zuò [dish name] ma?)". For example, "你会做饺子吗？(Nǐ huì zuò jiǎozi ma?)" means "Can you make dumplings?"
To answer "Can you cook?", you can say "会 (huì)" for yes and "不会 (bú huì)" for no. For example, "我会做饭。(Wǒ huì zuò fàn.)" means "I can cook." and "我不会做饭。(Wǒ bú huì zuò fàn.)" means "I can't cook."