不知这位贵客是
“May I ask who this guest is?”
THE DIALOGUE REEL
不知 这位 贵客 是
“May I ask who this guest is?”
这位是京城来的米商
“This is a rice merchant from the Capital,”
“Who are you, and why are you here?”
Trailing off a question with '是...' allows the other person to fill in the blank gracefully without feeling interrogated.
LEARNING CHUNKS & PARTICLES
distinguished guest / honored visitor
A formal and respectful term used to address or refer to VIP customers or visitors.
may I ask who this person is
A polite truncation of a question used to elicit an introduction without sounding blunt.
VOCABULARY & EXPRESSIONS
Parallel Spoken Cinema Scenes (语义近邻切片)
“What guest? I don't know. It's a gentleman.”
“What honoured guests you are!”
“I don't know who you're talking about.”
“We've got a guest here.”
“So you are a distinguished guest from afar.”
“I don't know who this person you're talking about is.”