Nowadays, it’s so easy to connect with a tutor from halfway around the world through technology like Skype and with the help of language learning sites like Italki and SharedTalk.

When you finally book your session with a tutor, you’re going to want to have an arsenal of phrases that you can use throughout the lesson that will show your tutor that you understood or didn’t understand.

Plus, you want to make sure that you’re being culturally accurate and polite, which is something that I worry about all of the time.

Here are 12 phrases to help you do just that.

When you don’t understand

1.) 我沒聽清楚。

ㄨㄛˇ ㄇㄟˊ ㄊㄧㄥ ㄑㄧㄥ ㄔㄨˇ。

wǒ méi tīng qīngchǔ

I didn’t hear you clearly.

2.) 我不明白你的意思。

ㄨㄛˇ ㄅㄨˋ ㄇㄧㄥˊ ㄅㄞˊ ㄋㄧˇ ㄉㄜ˙ ㄧˋ ㄙ。

wǒ bù míngbaí nǐ de yìsī。

I don’t understand what you mean.

3.) 我不知道

ㄨㄛˇ ㄅㄨˋ ㄓ ㄉㄠˋ。

wǒ bù zhīdào

I don’t know.

4.) 我不懂

ㄨㄛˇ ㄅㄨˋ ㄉㄨㄥˇ。

wǒ bù dǒng

I don’t understand.

5.) 我說錯了。

ㄨㄛˇ ㄕㄨㄛ ㄘㄨㄛˋ ㄌㄜ˙。

wǒ shuō cuò le

I said it wrong.

6.) 我聽錯了。

ㄨㄛˇ ㄊㄧㄥ ㄘㄨㄛˋ ㄌㄜ˙。

wǒ tīngcuò le

I heard it wrong.

7.) 我不明白了。

ㄨㄛˇ ㄅㄨˋ ㄇㄧㄥˊ ㄅㄞˊ ㄌㄜ˙。

wǒ bù míngbaí le

I’m confused.

When you do understand

The phrases below, in the context of being in a lesson with a tutor, are pretty interchangeable.

8.) 知道了。

zhīdàole

ㄓ ㄉㄠˋ ㄌㄜ˙

Got it. I understand now.

If you’re wondering why了 is used, it’s because there was a change. Before you didn’t understand, but now you do. That’s why using了 is necessary.

9.) 我懂啊。

wǒ dǒng ā

ㄨㄛˇ ㄉㄨㄥˇ ㄚ

I understand.

10.) 我明白了。

ㄨㄛˇ ㄇㄧㄥˊ ㄅㄞˊ ㄌㄜ˙。

wǒ míngbaí le

I understand.

11.) 我了解。

ㄨㄛˇ ㄌㄧㄠˇ ㄐㄧㄝˇ。

wǒ liǎojiě

I understand.

12.) 原來如此

ㄩㄢˊㄌㄞˊㄖㄨˊㄘˇ

 yuánlái rúcǐ

I finally see what you mean.

This can be used after your teacher has spent a long time clarifying or explaining something that you didn’t understand before.

Want to learn phrases for asking for examples, battling tech issues, and telling your teacher you’re glad for their help? Check out this article: 16 More Phrases You’ll Be Glad You Learned in Mandarin for Online Tutoring

Have any comments, questions or suggestions? Leave ’em in the comments below!

Note of gratitude: This post wouldn’t be possible without the help of YuYuan, our native Taiwanese speaker. Read more about her here.