Chinese vocabulary about business contract

Before we start looking at the words for business contracts today, did you know that in ancient China, a contract is was called ‘qì契’, ‘qìyuē契约’ or ‘qìquàn契券’? fact, a developed contract system appeared in the Western Zhou Dynasty (1064 B.C. -- 771 B.C.) in China. So, what are the words you should know about business contracts if you are doing business in China? Let’s keep reading!
- First of all, you will see these words on the cover of a contract:
Party A - jiǎfāng 甲方

Party B - yǐfāng 乙方

Contract code-hétóng biānhào 合同编号

Contract title - hétóng míngchēng 合同名称

- And we can find these at the end of a contract:
Signature & seal - qiānzì gàizhāng 签字盖章

Date - rìqī 日期

- Within a contract, you may wonder about these:
Original - zhèngběn 正本

Contract clauses - tiáokuǎn 条款

Copy - fùběn 副本

In duplicates - yīshì liǎngfèn 一式两份

Now you know the most basic words related to a contract itself, and you and the supplier are ready to sign the contract. What about a dialogue before signing? Seems very challenging, huh? Let’s have a try, shall we?
Supplier: Nǐhǎo, zhè shì zhōng yīngwén liǎng ge bǎnběn de hétóng. Qǐng nǐ zài kàn yī xià. 你好, 这是中英文两个版本的合同。请你再看一下。

Supplier: Qǐng zài zhèli hé zhèlǐ qiānmíng. Wǒmen dōu bǎoliú yī fèn zhèngběn hé liǎng fèn fùběn. 请在这里和这里签名。我们都保留一份正本和两份副本。

You: Zhù wǒmen hézuò yúkuài! 祝我们合作愉快！

English translation:
Supplier: Hello, please go over again the draft of the contract in both English and Chinese version.
You: Thank you, it looks fine.
Supplier: Please sign here and here. We both keep one original and two copies. I hope that our cooperation is successful!
Jeff: Wish our cooperation a happy success!
When you are discussing details of a contract, you may find these sentences very useful too:
1. I would like to confirm the quality of the products again.
Wǒ xiǎng zài quèrèn yīxià chǎnpǐn de zhìliàng wèntí.
我想再确认一下产品的质量问题。

2. About the time of delivery, I hope you can deliver the goods before October.
Guānyú jiāohuò, wǒ xīwàng nǐmen kěyǐ zài shíyuè yǐqián jiāohuò.
关于交货，我希望你们可以在十月以前交货。

3. Have you any other questions in regards to the contract?
Guānyú hétóng, nǐ hái yǒu shénme wèntí ma?
关于合同, 你还有什么问题吗？

4. When can you get the contract prepared?
Nǐmen shénme shíhou kěyǐ zhǔnbèi hǎo hétóng?
你们什么时候可以准备好合同？

5. I’m afraid there are some problems here.
Zhège kǒngpà yǒudiǎn wèntí.
这个恐怕有点问题。

Now, I think you already have some understanding about how to sign a contract in Chinese. If you want to learn more about business Chinese, here to register and book a free trial class with us!