澳白 (ào bái) is the Chinese for “flat white.”

To help you remember:

• 澳 (ào) is an abbreviation of “Australia” or “Australasia.”
• 白 (bái) is the colour “white”

So in Chinese a “flat white” is called an “Australasian white.”

Did you know that Australia and New Zealand both claim to have invented the flat white, hence the Chinese name?

Taking it further

When you’re ready, to 澳白 (ào bái) you could add:

• “One cup (of)” 一杯 (yī bēi)
  OR “Two cups (of)”: 两杯 (liǎng bēi)
• Then “I want” 我要 (wǒ yào)
  OR “Give me” 给我 (gěi wǒ)
• Which you could then soften to “I would like” 我想要 (wǒ xiǎng yào)
  OR “Please give me” 请给我来 (qǐng gěi wǒ lái)

So you’d end up with:

• 我想要一杯澳白。
  wǒ xiǎng yào yī bēi ào bái.
  I would like one cup (of) flat white

OR 请给我来一杯澳白。
qǐng gěi wǒ lái yī bēi ào bái
Please give me one cup (of) flat white

The Domino Effect

Do you notice how you can build things up in Chinese with pairs of characters/spoken syllables?  

• You could pair the 澳 (ào) you’ve just learned with other characters/syllables to also say:

澳洲 (ào zhōu) Australia

澳元 (ào yuán) Australian dollar

澳网 (ào wǎng) Australian open (tennis)

澳宝 (ào bǎo) opal (short for 澳洲宝石，Australian precious stone)

• You could pair the 白 (bái) you’ve just learned with other characters/syllables to also say:

白糖 (bái táng) white sugar

黑白 (hēi bái) black and white

白天 (bái tiān) daytime

白纸 (bái zhǐ) blank (sheet of) paper

Explore this wonderful feature of Chinese further or enquire about our courses, please contact info@thinkchinese.net

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This article is written by Tim Nash @Zipf