Emergencies — 报警 / 救护车 / basic first aid

The phrases you hope you never need

Emergencies are the one domain where vocabulary gaps stop being embarrassing and start being dangerous. You cannot improvise "there is a fire on the fourth floor" from a polite-conversation toolkit. The words are specialized, the sentences are short, and the phone operator on the other end wants specific fields — address, nature of incident, number of people involved — filled in the right order. This article is the minimum viable schema.

None of this is complicated grammar. Most of it is single nouns, two-word verbs, and four-syllable compound words. Learn the words; string them together with 有 or 在; stay on the line. The operator will walk you through the rest.

// The emergency call, as a typed request.
interface EmergencyCall {
    dial(number: 110 | 119 | 120 | 122): Operator;
    callForHelp(): string;
    describeSituation(loc: Location, event: Event): void;
    identifySelf(name: string, addr: Address): void;
    requestInterpreter?(lang: "English"): void;
}

1. Numbers to call

Mainland China splits emergency services across four numbers. There is no single "911." Dial the one that matches the situation. All four are free from any phone, including locked phones with no SIM.

2. callForHelp()

The opening line. Short, loud, unmistakable. These are the four phrases you should be able to produce without thinking.

3. describeSituation()

After the opening line, the operator will ask what happened. The answer is almost always a three-part sentence: location, existence marker (有 = "there is" or 在 = "at"), and event noun.

4. Identify yourself & location

The operator's second round of questions is identification. They need your name, a phone number they can call back on, and — most importantly — a precise address. "Somewhere near a Starbucks" is not an address.

Useful address building blocks:

5. Injuries & first aid vocab

The dispatcher on 120 will ask what is wrong with the patient. Answer with a condition noun; they will decide whether to send paramedics or walk you through first aid on the line.

6. At the scene

Who you'll meet when the call connects with reality. Knowing the role nouns lets you direct first responders ("the victim is over there") without fumbling.

7. Practical safety vocab

Signs, devices, and disaster nouns. You will see most of these printed on walls and in public spaces — learn them passively so you can find them fast when it matters.

Signs & equipment

Disasters

8. Sample dialogs

9. Edge cases

Staying calm on the phone

Dispatchers are trained to keep callers on the line until help arrives. They will ask follow-up questions that may feel slow when you want to say just come already. Answer them. The ambulance is already moving while you are still talking — the questions are for the paramedics who will arrive, not a bottleneck before dispatch.

• 别 挂 电话 (bié guà diànhuà) — "don't hang up." The operator will say this.
• 留 在 原地 (liú zài yuán dì) — "stay where you are." Moving makes you harder to find.
• 保持 冷静 (bǎo chí lěng jìng) — "stay calm." What you say to yourself, and to the victim.

When your Chinese runs out

If you cannot hold a fluent conversation, surface that early. The dispatcher can route you to an English-speaking colleague or a translation line — but only if they know they need to.

Fire-floor procedure in Chinese buildings

Chinese fire-safety signage is standardized. In a fire event:

• Follow 安全出口 signs (green, running figure) — these lead to the 楼梯 (stairs).
• Never take the 电梯 (elevator) during a fire — it may stop between floors.
• If stuck, close the door, seal gaps with wet towels, call 119, and wave from the window.

被 — the passive you'll hear on police reports

Theft, assault, and accident reports use the 被 (bèi) passive. 我 的 钱包 被 偷 了 = "my wallet was stolen." The structure is patient + 被 + (agent) + verb + 了. Agent is optional — 我 被 撞 了 ("I was hit") works without saying by whom.

10. Next steps

• Next phrasebook: At the Hospital — registration, symptoms, prescriptions
• Phrasebook: Directions & Transport — the address vocabulary you'll need before the call
• Browse emergencies vocabulary — filtered by tag
• Module 6: Control Flow — conditionals for "if X, then call Y"

The best emergency-Chinese is the drill you run once so it is autopilot in the moment. Record yourself saying 救命, 出 车祸 了, and your home address in Mandarin. Play it back. Fix the tones. Put the four phone numbers on your lock screen. That is the whole preparation.