I keep forgetting Yao is also a transitive verb. You say you can't go
wrong with Cha but there apparently is more to Chaye than reading tea
leaves. It get it's own disyllabic entry in the dictionary otherwise
you just butt the two characters in a sentence and use the literal
meaning in context. If one of my dictionaries didn't say the first
translation was tea I'd go with Cha everytime. Either that or make
companies drop the second character in their name and go with Lew's
suggestion.

Jim

On Apr 11, 3:34 am, "MarshalN" wrote:
On Apr 11, 2:39 am, "Space Cowboy" wrote:

Thanks for the examples. I can use ChaYe to mean tea(leaves) if I'm
not talking about Cha the drink. I know you are really using the
disyllabic dictionary word ChaYe for tealeaves which is why I said
leaves is silent not in any Chinese sense but in Western meaning. I'm
still not sure if it is cha or chaye shangdian. I'm bookish enough to
know to answer the ma interrogatory with a simple mai.

Jim

I think I've said this twice already, but I'll say it again.

Cha can mean both the leaves and the drink. Chaye can only mean the
leaves and not the drink.

You can just say "Wo yao mai cha". People will know you want tea
leaves, because if you want to buy a cup of tea or whatever, you will
say it in a different way. Chaye is not required as an answer.

Actually, the proper answer, if it's positive, is to say "yao" or just
an "en", not "mai".

MarshalNhttp://www.xanga.com/MarshalN