# Just checking to make sure that you're open tomorrow for lunch



## yuechu

大家好！

I was recently calling a Chinese restaurant and was wondering how to translate this:
<on phone> "Hi! Just checking to make sure that you're open tomorrow for lunch?"

Would anyone know how to say this in Chinese?

Thanks!


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## SuperXW

请问你们明天中午营业吗？


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## yuechu

I wouldn't have been able to guess that properly myself. Thanks, SuperXW! 😄

How about: "请问你们明天为了*午餐*开门吗"? (I know this is probably wrong, but I'm still curious!)


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## SuperXW

yuechu said:


> How about: "请问你们明天为了*午餐*开门吗"? (I know this is probably wrong, but I'm still curious!)


That would be funny (and wrong). Because the purpose of opening a restaurant is for SERVING lunch/diner for sure. No need to say.
If you stress "for lunch", it sounds like the staff are open the restaurant for THEIR lunch. If there's no guest tomorrow, they'll starve...
My personal feeling, your suggestions are often overly polite and wordy. I'd keep it concise if I were you.


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## yuechu

Yes, you're right! I was translating directly from English.

Is there a way of saying it though and including the word "lunch" or "dinner"?
请问你们明天午餐的时候(I'm trying to say "lunch time")营业吗？

Some places are only open for lunch or dinner (and not the whole day).


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## Ghabi

yuechu said:


> Some places are only open for lunch or dinner (and not the whole day).


In this kind of situation, we say (I mean in Hong Kong, in Cantonese) 你地做唔做午市/晚市架？

午市/晚市 (like "noon/night business") are special words used in this kind of situation, but I don't know if they are also used in Mandarin.


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## SuperXW

yuechu said:


> Yes, you're right! I was translating directly from English.
> 
> Is there a way of saying it though and including the word "lunch" or "dinner"?
> 请问你们明天午餐的时候(I'm trying to say "lunch time")营业吗？
> 
> Some places are only open for lunch or dinner (and not the whole day).


请问你们明天午餐的时候营业吗？ is acceptable.
As Ghabi said, there's 午市 in Cantonese. In Mandarin, if you really need a direct translation, you can use 午饭时间/午餐时间 etc.


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## SimonTsai

Ghabi said:


> 午市/晚市 (like "noon/night business") [....] but I don't know if they are also used in Mandarin.


I don't think that I have ever used or heard people using those words in Mandarin. They sounds literary.


yuechu said:


> "请问你们明天为了午餐开门吗"? (I know this is probably wrong, but I'm still curious!)


Just echoing SuperXW's opinion: It doesn't work.

To include the word '_lunch_', say, '請問你們明天提供午餐嗎?'

To emphasise the word '_open_', say, '請問你們明天中午有開嗎?'

SuperXW's suggestion in post #2, with 營業, sounds somewhat formal to my ear.


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## piano_mary

yuechu said:


> Yes, you're right! I was translating directly from English.
> 
> Is there a way of saying it though and including the word "lunch" or "dinner"?
> 请问你们明天午餐的时候(I'm trying to say "lunch time")营业吗？
> 
> Some places are only open for lunch or dinner (and not the whole day).



I might say "请问你们明天中午开门吗？" Because "营业" is too formal. (This is just a daily conversation, isn't it?)
It’s unnecessary to include "午餐", as "中午" already implies that you're asking if they'll be open for lunch.

Though in "*营业时间*为…点到…点" (usually seen on signs or in ads), we use the word "营业" instead of "开门". In this context "开门" would sound odd.


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## piano_mary

SimonTsai said:


> To emphasise the word '_open_', say, '請問你們明天中午有開嗎?'


Can "有+verb" be applied to questions about future events? I've never come across that expression before... perhaps it's regional? When we say "……有+verb+吗？", we're always asking about the past. For example, "你昨天有去学校吗？" (By the way, "你昨天*去学校了吗*？" is more commom than "*有去学校吗*")

In the context suggested by yuechu, I think it would be more natural to replace "有" in  '請問你們明天中午有開嗎?' with "会" （请问你们明天会开吗？）


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## SimonTsai

piano_mary said:


> Can "有+verb" be applied to questions about future events? I've never come across that expression before... perhaps it's regional?


Perhaps it's a Taiwanese thing. We say it all the time. For example,





(source: Facebook)




(source: Facebook)


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## DIBAO

yuechu said:


> Yes, you're right! I was translating directly from English.
> 
> Is there a way of saying it though and including the word "lunch" or "dinner"?
> 请问你们明天午餐的时候(I'm trying to say "lunch time")营业吗？
> 
> Some places are only open for lunch or dinner (and not the whole day).



You can say like that, “你们的餐厅 明天 提供/有 午餐 吗？” or “你们的餐厅 明天中午 营业/开门 吗？” If you consider the restaurant which
is only open for lunch or dinner, you could use the former sentence.

But we seldom relate "lunch time" to "restaurant" as it's tacit that restaurants' major business are offering food, so we always use "normal time" such as "morning, noon, and evening" to replace "breakfast, lunch, and dinner time" when we mention a restaurant.
For example, "How about the lunch in that restaurant?" could be translated to “那家餐厅中午的菜怎么样？” but seldom to "那家餐厅午餐时间的菜怎么样？"

"请问你们明天为了*午餐*开门吗?" I think it's somehow unfitting because we all know restaurants are open for their business but any clients' diet.


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