How to ask your neighbour to keep the noise down in Chinese

Someone upstairs is either renovating, bowling, or raising a small horse. The civilized escalation path runs through the property office (物业).

What you'll say

Tap play to hear it. Everything on this page runs in your browser — nothing is uploaded.

Heads-up: the voice you hear here is your browser’s built-in Mandarin — the app sounds considerably better. On iPhone it uses Apple’s enhanced and premium system voices, plays at real conversational speed, and has a slow mode for practising.

This device has no Chinese voice installed, so audio can’t play here. The app doesn’t have that problem — it uses the Mandarin voices built into iOS.

楼上太吵了。

Lóushàng tài chǎo le.

Upstairs is too noisy.

楼上 upstairs, 隔壁 (gébì) next door. 太吵了 works for construction, parties, and small horses alike.

麻烦物业帮我反映一下。

Máfan wùyè bāng wǒ fǎnyìng yíxià.

Please have the property office pass on the complaint.

物业 (wùyè) = property management. The correct first hop — going door-knocking yourself is advanced mode.

晚上十点以后还在装修，这合规吗？

Wǎnshang shí diǎn yǐhòu hái zài zhuāngxiū, zhè héguī ma?

They're still renovating after 10pm — is that allowed?

Renovation hours are regulated (usually 8am–6pm weekdays). 合规 (héguī) = compliant. Magic word.

1 more phrase in this situation — plus the real-speed audio for all 4, the listening drill, and the camera. Six situations are free in the app; this one is part of Pro.

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What they'll say back

This is the part nobody teaches. Real Mandarin comes back fast and blunt, so hear it at natural speed first.

Press play before you read. In the app, anything you miss comes back slower and then again later, until you catch it at full speed.

They say

好的，我们联系一下楼上的业主。

Hǎo de, wǒmen liánxì yíxià lóushàng de yèzhǔ.

OK, we'll contact the upstairs owner.

You can answer

谢谢，麻烦今天就联系。

Xièxie, máfan jīntiān jiù liánxì.

Thanks — please contact them today.

They say

他们说装修还要一个星期。

Tāmen shuō zhuāngxiū hái yào yí ge xīngqī.

They say the renovation needs one more week.

You can answer

行，但请让他们遵守时间规定。

Xíng, dàn qǐng ràng tāmen zūnshǒu shíjiān guīdìng.

Fine — but please have them stick to the permitted hours.

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