<p>You may say 稍等. It is more polite than 等等.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-12-02T14:19:13.103Z
+1 for politeness, which is important in many situations and also sounds more professional.
Gao
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-12-02T18:38:30.873Z
But if you want to be less polite, I've heard people say 一下 the way you could say in English "one sec."
Colin McLarty
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-12-02T14:03:03.533Z
2014-12-02T14:03:03.533Z
pinxue
<p>等等 is as short as it gets, sorry. It doesn't have any hard to pronounce consonents. I mean even "hold on" in english, which is  commonly spoken, has two syllables.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-12-04T12:41:30.847Z
2014-12-04T12:41:30.847Z
Jessica
<p>I heard most of Chinese (Mandarin) saying 等下 /deng xià/ to their friends...</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-05-31T22:29:10.243Z
2017-05-31T22:29:10.243Z
Da-Yen
<p>等 等 is more of a command. It is to replace just 等 to mean 'wait' in English.
Chinese prefer multi-syllable words: 妈妈, 妹妹, 宝宝, 听听, 说说, 毛毛, 猫猫, etc</p>

<p>等一下 is a more polite way (calmer tone) to say 等等; it imparts less intimidation, more like a request. The short version of this is 等下, and is commonly used in households &amp; general public like shops, malls, etc.</p>

<p>A more respectable 稍等 is in formal situations or those which impart respect eg. in business ranks, politics, or to elderly.</p>

<p>等待 also means to 'wait' for someone or something to happen. </p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-22T11:41:28.957Z
Sorry, but as a Mandarin-native speaker, I completely miss how 等等 can be less polite than 等一下. Imho, at this level, the tone is probably more important than the wording, e.g. saying 等一下 impatiently is much worse than casually saying 等等. Only 稍等 is imo substantially more polite than the two, and 请稍等 becomes even more formal and polite.
zypA13510
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-22T12:44:43.777Z
The point about 等 等 & 等  is the same even in English eg. yes, vs yes yes, or quick vs quick quick. The repetition imparts a manner of not appearing arrogant, creating a calm & friendly atmosphere; often accompanied by a generous smile. Mandarin is a tonal language, hence the tone is much more important than the word itself; even a change in tone gives the word a different meaning eg. 毛毛 and 猫猫. 请 makes every word/phrase more formal. We 等下 in my family, and 稍等 to grandparents & visitors: 西安市, 陕西省
Zimba
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-22T01:48:40.663Z
2020-03-22T02:01:10.573Z
2020-03-22T02:01:10.573Z
Zimba
<p>等一下 is fine, but if you want shorter answers, there are other options:</p>

<ul>
<li>等等：pretty much the same as 等一下</li>
<li>馬上：means immediately, will be there in a moment</li>
</ul>

<p>These are the two word answers I can think of right now.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-12-02T13:23:00.280Z
2014-12-02T13:23:00.280Z
Gao
<p>Conversation example:</p>

<p>A: Take that box upstairs!<br>
B: <strong>Wait.</strong> (while he is busy doing something else).</p>

<p>How to say that <strong>wait</strong> in conversational Mandarin?</p>

<p>I feel 等一下 is too long. If you know Hokkien (Min Nan) language, people can say: tan lah.</p>

<p>I don't think 等啦 has equivalent feel with Hokkien "tan lah".</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-12-02T12:01:31.697Z
Just curious. Do English speakers say "Wait" to mean "wait a bit"?
Wang Dingwei
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-12-02T12:40:19.463Z
Probably, I'm not english speaker actually :)
null
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-12-02T12:45:59.970Z
I'm a native English speaker (UK/Scotland). We would generally say 'wait a minute', 'wait a second', 'wait a bit' etc. Rarely would we just say 'wait', because it sounds quite rude.
Cocowalla
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-12-02T13:20:04.553Z
Also I am curious about the implied duration in Hokkien 等啦. If it's say 10 seconds, Mandarin could beat it with 等几秒, but I know that's cheating..
Wang Dingwei
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-12-02T13:55:04.020Z
@WangDingwei: in hokkien, it should be: tan cit e
null
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-12-04T05:12:47.600Z
In English, "Wait", while a bit strong to the ears, is a strong suggestion or command to stop. As a single word "wait" the command is open ended because the speaker probably wishes to remain in control of the situation. "Wait a minute/minute/second" passes control to the listener after the specified time passes. In Chinese wait is not meant to stop someone from doing something as much as it is meant to request a moment of the listener's time.
Mike Butler
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-22T11:31:20.580Z
Not sure if this counts as an answer so I'll leave it here as a comment - if this is in IM (instant messaging) or SMS, sometimes two equality signs `==` is used to mean the same, taking the first character of equality (**等**于) or equality sign (**等**号) to mean 等等.
zypA13510
<translation><mandarin><vocabulary><conversation>
How to answer "wait" in a conversation in simple Mandarin?
# How to answer "wait" in a conversation in simple Mandarin?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-12-02)

Conversation example:

A: Take that box upstairs!  
B: **Wait.** (while he is busy doing something else).

How to say that **wait** in conversational Mandarin?

I feel 等一下 is too long. If you know Hokkien (Min Nan) language, people can say: tan lah.

I don't think 等啦 has equivalent feel with Hokkien "tan lah".

**Tags:** translation, mandarin, vocabulary, conversation

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Just curious. Do English speakers say "Wait" to mean "wait a bit"?  
> **username_0**: Probably, I'm not english speaker actually :)  
> **username_2**: I'm a native English speaker (UK/Scotland). We would generally say 'wait a minute', 'wait a second', 'wait a bit' etc. Rarely would we just say 'wait', because it sounds quite rude.  
> **username_1**: Also I am curious about the implied duration in Hokkien 等啦. If it's say 10 seconds, Mandarin could beat it with 等几秒, but I know that's cheating..  
> **username_0**: @username_1: in hokkien, it should be: tan cit e  
> **username_3**: In English, "Wait", while a bit strong to the ears, is a strong suggestion or command to stop. As a single word "wait" the command is open ended because the speaker probably wishes to remain in control of the situation. "Wait a minute/minute/second" passes control to the listener after the specified time passes. In Chinese wait is not meant to stop someone from doing something as much as it is meant to request a moment of the listener's time.  
> **username_4**: Not sure if this counts as an answer so I'll leave it here as a comment - if this is in IM (instant messaging) or SMS, sometimes two equality signs `==` is used to mean the same, taking the first character of equality (**等**于) or equality sign (**等**号) to mean 等等.  

---

## 5 answers

### Answer by username_6 on 2014-12-02. Score: 9 | Accepted answer

等一下 is fine, but if you want shorter answers, there are other options:

* 等等：pretty much the same as 等一下
* 馬上：means immediately, will be there in a moment

These are the two word answers I can think of right now.


---

### Answer by username_5 on 2014-12-02. Score: 7

You may say 稍等. It is more polite than 等等.

> **Comments:**
> **username_6**: +1 for politeness, which is important in many situations and also sounds more professional.  
> **username_7**: But if you want to be less polite, I've heard people say 一下 the way you could say in English "one sec."  

---

### Answer by username_8 on 2014-12-04. Score: 2

等等 is as short as it gets, sorry. It doesn't have any hard to pronounce consonents. I mean even "hold on" in english, which is commonly spoken, has two syllables.


---

### Answer by username_9 on 2017-05-31. Score: 0

I heard most of Chinese (Mandarin) saying 等下 /deng xià/ to their friends...


---

### Answer by username_10 on 2020-03-22. Score: 0

等 等 is more of a command. It is to replace just 等 to mean 'wait' in English.
Chinese prefer multi-syllable words: 妈妈, 妹妹, 宝宝, 听听, 说说, 毛毛, 猫猫, etc

等一下 is a more polite way (calmer tone) to say 等等; it imparts less intimidation, more like a request. The short version of this is 等下, and is commonly used in households & general public like shops, malls, etc.

A more respectable 稍等 is in formal situations or those which impart respect eg. in business ranks, politics, or to elderly.

等待 also means to 'wait' for someone or something to happen.

> **Comments:**
> **username_4**: Sorry, but as a Mandarin-native speaker, I completely miss how 等等 can be less polite than 等一下. Imho, at this level, the tone is probably more important than the wording, e.g. saying 等一下 impatiently is much worse than casually saying 等等. Only 稍等 is imo substantially more polite than the two, and 请稍等 becomes even more formal and polite.  
> **username_10**: The point about 等 等 & 等  is the same even in English eg. yes, vs yes yes, or quick vs quick quick. The repetition imparts a manner of not appearing arrogant, creating a calm & friendly atmosphere; often accompanied by a generous smile. Mandarin is a tonal language, hence the tone is much more important than the word itself; even a change in tone gives the word a different meaning eg. 毛毛 and 猫猫. 请 makes every word/phrase more formal. We 等下 in my family, and 稍等 to grandparents & visitors: 西安市, 陕西省  

---

