How do you say "The air conditioner is broken" in Chinese?

"The air conditioner is broken" in Chinese is 空调坏了。 — written in pinyin as Kōngtiáo huài le. It is a hotel phrase you would use in China.

What does 空调坏了。 mean in Chinese?

空调坏了。 (Kōngtiáo huài le) means "The air conditioner is broken". Broken down word by word: 空调 (kōngtiáo) means "air conditioner"; 坏 (huài) means "broken"; 了 (le) means "aspect particle".

When would you use "The air conditioner is broken" in Chinese?

Say it at the front desk when the room is too hot or too cold and you have worked out that the machine is not responding at all, rather than that you cannot find the remote. It is also the sentence to bring to a landlord or a homestay host, because 坏了 reports a fault without blaming anyone for it.

How to say “The air conditioner is broken” in Chinese

“The air conditioner is broken” in Chinese is 空调坏了。, written in pinyin as Kōngtiáo huài le.

空调坏了。

Kōngtiáo huài le.

The air conditioner is broken.

Word by word

What each part of 空调坏了。 actually means.

空调kōngtiáoair conditioner
坏huàibroken
了leaspect particle

When you use it

Say it at the front desk when the room is too hot or too cold and you have worked out that the machine is not responding at all, rather than that you cannot find the remote.
It is also the sentence to bring to a landlord or a homestay host, because 坏了 reports a fault without blaming anyone for it.

Use 空调坏了。 in hotel situations. Check in, check out and fix things in your room.

Other ways people say it

The same idea, said differently. Roughly in the order you'll hear them.

空调不制冷了。
Kōngtiáo bù zhìlěng le
The AC has stopped cooling.
Use it when the unit is running but blowing warm air — a different fault from a dead one.
空调打不开。
Kōngtiáo dǎ bù kāi
The AC won't turn on.
打不开 covers anything that refuses to open or start, from a window to an app.
能派人来看看吗？
Néng pài rén lái kànkan ma?
Could you send someone to look at it?
The follow-up that turns a report into an actual repair.

What usually trips people up

坏 is for things, never for people. 我坏了 is nonsense while 空调坏了 is normal, and the pattern takes any appliance: 灯坏了, 马桶坏了, 洗衣机坏了.
了 here is not past tense. 坏了 reports a new state — it has become broken — which is why the same sentence still describes a machine that is broken right now.
坏了 covers a machine that has failed. A device that has simply run out of power is 没电了 (méi diàn le), and saying 坏了 about a flat remote invites a repair visit you do not need.

What you might hear back

好的，我马上叫人上去。Hǎo de, wǒ mǎshàng jiào rén shàngquOK, I'll send someone up right away.
您要不要换个房间？Nín yào bu yào huàn ge fángjiān?Would you like to change rooms?
今天维修师傅不在。Jīntiān wéixiū shīfu bú zàiThe repairman isn't in today.

Common questions

How do you say "The air conditioner is broken" in Chinese?: "The air conditioner is broken" in Chinese is 空调坏了。 — written in pinyin as Kōngtiáo huài le. It is a hotel phrase you would use in China.
What does 空调坏了。 mean in Chinese?: 空调坏了。 (Kōngtiáo huài le) means "The air conditioner is broken". Broken down word by word: 空调 (kōngtiáo) means "air conditioner"; 坏 (huài) means "broken"; 了 (le) means "aspect particle".
When would you use "The air conditioner is broken" in Chinese?: Say it at the front desk when the room is too hot or too cold and you have worked out that the machine is not responding at all, rather than that you cannot find the remote. It is also the sentence to bring to a landlord or a homestay host, because 坏了 reports a fault without blaming anyone for it.

Where you'll use it

空调坏了。 comes up in these situations, in this order.

🏨 Checking into a hotel8 steps

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