Have you eaten?

Instead of saying "How are you?" Chinese people will often say "Have you eaten?" This is a very standard way of greeting people.  When first arriving in China its necessary to get familiar with simple conversations and simple phrases such as the former question.  But many times people ask these same questions in different ways or using different words.  There seems to be dozens of ways to ask someone where they are from.  Lots of times if you don't know what the person is asking you, you try to guess what it is or just start saying things and hope that one of them is the right answer.  Foriegners get good at faking it but sometimes it can backfire and make you look a total fool.  Our Chinese teacher recently told us one such story. 
A woman lost her cat and was asking all her neighbors if they had seen it.  This is what happened when the foreign neighbor opened his door.  The woman asked:
"nǐ kān wǒ de māo ma?" (你看我的猫吗?) = Have you seen my cat?
The foreigner didn't understand her so he just assumed that she had asked him if he had eaten. He replied:
"wǒ chī le." (我吃了)= I've eaten.
Rather stunned she exclaimed:
"nǐ chī le wǒ de māo ma?!" (你吃了我的猫吗?!)= You ate my cat?!


Phrases to remember:

nǐ chī fàn le ma？(你吃饭了吗 ?)=  Have you eaten?

wǒ chī le. (我吃了.)= I've eaten.

wǒ méi chī.(我没吃.)= I haven't eaten.