慢慢學 mànmàn xuéReading Taiwanese signs and menus: the characters you need
The characters that actually stop you in Taiwan: toilet doors, push or pull, open or closed, menu boards, prices and street addresses — with pinyin, meanings and audio.
Everywhere else on this site the characters stay in the background, because speaking comes first and pinyin gets you speaking faster. Reading is the exception: nobody sounds out a toilet door. You either recognise 男 and 女 or you guess, and the same goes for 推 and 拉 on a glass door, 營業中 or 休息中 on a shop shutter, and whether the drinks board says 熱 or 冰.
This is a deliberately small set — around fifty characters, chosen because not knowing them costs you something real. Most are one or two characters, several are on every street, and a few (元, 號, 樓) are the difference between finding an address and walking past it. Learn these and Taiwan gets noticeably easier to move around, long before you can read a newspaper.
50 signs and characters
| What it means | Pinyin | Characters |
|---|---|---|
| Men — on a toilet door | nán | 男 |
| Women — on a toilet door | nǚ | 女 |
| Toilet | cèsuǒ | 廁所 |
| Restroom — the politer sign | xǐshǒujiān | 洗手間 |
| Push | tuī | 推 |
| Pull | lā | 拉 |
| Entrance | rùkǒu | 入口 |
| Exit | chūkǒu | 出口 |
| Emergency exit | jǐnjí chūkǒu | 緊急出口 |
| Lift / elevator | diàntī | 電梯 |
| Stairs | lóutī | 樓梯 |
| Open for business | yíngyè zhōng | 營業中 |
| Closed / on a break | xiūxí zhōng | 休息中 |
| Closed today — the regular day off | jīnrì gōngxiū | 今日公休 |
| Special price | tèjià | 特價 |
| Free of charge | miǎnfèi | 免費 |
| Cashier / pay here | shōuyíntái | 收銀台 |
| Full — no seats | kèmǎn | 客滿 |
| Large / medium / small | dà / zhōng / xiǎo | 大／中／小 |
| Hot — on a drinks board | rè | 熱 |
| Iced — on a drinks board | bīng | 冰 |
| Vegetarian | sù | 素 |
| Spicy | là | 辣 |
| Add / extra | jiā | 加 |
| Dollars — after a price | yuán | 元 |
| Portion / serving | fèn | 份 |
| Soup | tāng | 湯 |
| Rice / a meal | fàn | 飯 |
| Noodles | miàn | 麵 |
| Chicken | jī | 雞 |
| Pork | zhū | 豬 |
| Beef | niú | 牛 |
| Fish | yú | 魚 |
| Egg | dàn | 蛋 |
| Tea | chá | 茶 |
| Water | shuǐ | 水 |
| Stop | tíng | 停 |
| Caution: wet floor | xiǎoxīn dì huá | 小心地滑 |
| Prohibited | jìnzhǐ | 禁止 |
| Please do not… | qǐng wù | 請勿 |
| Slow | màn | 慢 |
| Station / stop | zhàn | 站 |
| Road | lù | 路 |
| Street | jiē | 街 |
| Number — in an address | hào | 號 |
| Floor — as in 3F | lóu | 樓 |
| Left | zuǒ | 左 |
| Right | yòu | 右 |
| Hospital | yīyuàn | 醫院 |
| Attention / please note | zhùyì | 注意 |
Questions people ask
Do I need to learn characters to live in Taiwan?
Not to speak — but a few dozen make daily life much smoother. Menus, toilet doors, shop hours and street addresses are all written, and most aren't translated outside tourist areas.
Traditional or simplified?
Taiwan uses traditional characters, and everything here is traditional. Simplified will get you partway with signs but plenty of common characters differ.
How do I tell 推 and 拉 apart?
Both take the hand radical on the left. tuī (推) is push, lā (拉) is pull — and the practical trick is that Taiwanese doors are usually signed on both sides, so if one says 推 as you approach, you push.
What does 營業中 mean?
Open for business. Its opposite, 休息中, means closed or on a break — and 今日公休 means shut for the day, which small shops and family restaurants use for their regular day off.