Learn the Chinese auxiliary verb that means something is possible
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Anthony: Welcome to chineseclass101, the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn Chinese. |
| Echo: 大家好， 我是Echo。 (Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo.) |
| Anthony: And I am Anthony and today we have our 15th lesson in our second season of our beginner series titled Bank Cards in China. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Anthony: Now China is an overwhelmingly cash-based economy. |
| Echo: That’s right but if you don’t have cash on you, some places will accept bank cards. |
| Anthony: And that’s what’s going on in today’s dialogue. A customer is seeing if he can use his bank card to buy some stuff at a department store. |
| Echo: Right. So today, we are going to talk about bank related vocabulary. |
| Anthony: And we are also going to talk about a very useful verb in the grammar section, something that you don’t want to miss. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Anthony: Before we go to our dialogue, if you want to study Chinese faster, sign up as a premium subscriber at chineseclass101.com. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Anthony: What do you get Echo if you sign up? |
| Echo: You get tons of good stuff. |
| Anthony: Right. PDFs… |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Anthony: Voice recorder tool. You will also get line by line translations. |
| Echo: Exactly. |
| Anthony: So that’s all on the website. With that said, let’s go to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 可以刷卡吗？ (Kěyǐ shuākǎ ma?) |
| 可以。是信用卡吗？ (Kěyǐ. Shì xìnyòngkǎ ma?) |
| 对，国际信用卡。 (Duì, guójì xìnyòngkǎ.) |
| 哦，不可以。国际信用卡不可以。 (O, bù kěyǐ. Guójì xìnyòngkǎ bù kěyǐ) |
| Anthony: One more time, a little bit slower. |
| 可以刷卡吗？ (Kěyǐ shuākǎ ma?) |
| 可以。是信用卡吗？ (Kěyǐ. Shì xìnyòngkǎ ma?) |
| 对，国际信用卡。 (Duì, guójì xìnyòngkǎ.) |
| 哦，不可以。国际信用卡不可以。 (O, bù kěyǐ. Guójì xìnyòngkǎ bù kěyǐ) |
| Anthony: One more time with English. |
| 可以刷卡吗？ (Kěyǐ shuākǎ ma?) |
| Can I use my card here? |
| 可以。是信用卡吗？ (Kěyǐ. Shì xìnyòngkǎ ma?) |
| Yes, you can. Is it a credit card? |
| 对，国际信用卡。 (Duì, guójì xìnyòngkǎ.) |
| Yes it’s an international credit card. |
| 哦，不可以。国际信用卡不可以。 (O, bù kěyǐ. Guójì xìnyòngkǎ bù kěyǐ) |
| Oh, I'm sorry. You can't use an international credit card. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Anthony: Yeah one rule of thumb, in China, I make sure that I have at least some cash on me at all times. |
| Echo: Well you know, I think now most places will accept international cards at especially like large department stores and the shopping malls. |
| Anthony: You know a place that always accepts credit cards. |
| Echo: Where? |
| Anthony: Starbucks. |
| Echo: Huh! |
| Anthony: Now Visa is pretty widely accepted in both Beijing and Shanghai. One of the first things I did when I came to Beijing was to open up a Chinese bank account. |
| Echo: Right. It is really easy to do. All you need is your passport. |
| Anthony: Yep. And there is literally ATMs on every corner that I can use to get money out of. |
| Echo: So to get the cash you need for the things you want to buy, you would need this vocabulary coming up. |
| Anthony: Absolutely, so let’s go on to the vocabulary section. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Anthony: And now the vocab section. |
| Echo: 可以 (kěyǐ) |
| Anthony: To be able. |
| Echo: 可以, 可以. 刷卡 (kěyǐ, kěyǐ. shuākǎ) |
| Anthony: To pay with the credit card. |
| Echo: 刷卡, 刷卡. 信用卡 (shuākǎ, shuākǎ. xìnyòngkǎ) |
| Anthony: Credit card. |
| Echo: 信用卡, 信用卡. 国际 (xìnyòngkǎ, xìnyòngkǎ. guójì) |
| Anthony: International. |
| Echo: 国际, 国际. 现金 (guójì, guójì. xiànjīn) |
| Anthony: Cash. |
| Echo: 现金, 现金. 密码 (xiànjīn, xiànjīn. mìmǎ) |
| Anthony: Password. |
| Echo: 密码，密码. ATM机 (mìmǎ, mìmǎ. ATMjī) |
| Anthony: Automated teller machine. |
| Echo: ATM机, ATM机. (ATMjī, ATMjī.) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Anthony: Okay. So let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| Echo: The first one is 可以 (kěyǐ) |
| Anthony: To be able. |
| Echo: 可以 (kěyǐ) |
| Anthony: And we are going to take a more in depth look at this in the grammar section. |
| Echo: Let’s have a sample sentence first here now. |
| Anthony: Okay. |
| Echo: 我可以去吗？ (Wǒ kěyǐ qù ma?) |
| Anthony: Can I go? |
| Echo: 我可以去吗？ (Wǒ kěyǐ qù ma?) |
| Anthony: No you may not. Stay right here. |
| Echo: Yeah next one is very, very useful 刷卡。 (shuākǎ.) |
| Anthony: To pay with a card. |
| Echo: 刷卡。 (shuākǎ.) |
| Anthony: And you can use this with a bank card, credit card. Even a metrocard, you can use this. |
| Echo: Yes, yes. 刷卡。我想刷卡。 (shuākǎ. Wǒ xiǎng shuākǎ.) |
| Anthony: I feel like paying with my card. |
| Echo: 我想刷卡。 (Wǒ xiǎng shuākǎ.) |
| Anthony: Okay now there is a special type of card for our next word. |
| Echo: Yeah 信用卡。 (xìnyòngkǎ.) |
| Anthony: And this is credit card. |
| Echo: 信用卡。 (xìnyòngkǎ.) |
| Anthony: So this actually means credit and card. |
| Echo: Right. 信用，卡。 (Xìnyòng, kǎ.) |
| Anthony: Right. |
| Echo: Right and if you are using a 信用卡 (xìnyòngkǎ) you really don’t want to say this sentence. 我的信用卡没钱了。 (Wǒ de xìnyòngkǎ méi qiánle.) |
| Anthony: Yeah my credit card doesn’t have any money on it. |
| Echo: 我的信用卡没钱了。 (Wǒ de xìnyòngkǎ méi qiánle.) |
| Anthony: Okay. |
| Echo: Well I have another credit card. |
| Anthony: Yeah. Digging yourself into debt. |
| Echo: 国际 (guójì) |
| Anthony: International. |
| Echo: 国际 (guójì) |
| Anthony: That’s second tone, fourth tone. |
| Echo: 你有国际信用卡吗？ (Nǐ yǒu guójì xìnyòngkǎ ma?) |
| Anthony: Do you have an international credit card? |
| Echo: 你有国际信用卡吗？ (Nǐ yǒu guójì xìnyòngkǎ ma?) |
| Anthony: You know, usually I am asked this question at an ATM when I put my card in. It needs to recognize if it’s a Chinese card or an international card. |
| Echo: 中国信用卡 (Zhōngguó xìnyòngkǎ) or we can say 国内信用卡。 (Zhōngguó xìnyòngkǎ.) |
| Anthony: Yes. |
| Echo: It’s national, yeah… |
| Anthony: Inside the country card. |
| Echo: Or 国际信用卡。 (Shì xìnyòngkǎ ma?) |
| Anthony: Echo, our next word is this. It’s the opposite of credit card. |
| Echo: Right 现金。 (xiànjīn) |
| Anthony: Cash. |
| Echo: 现金。 (xiànjīn) |
| Anthony: Cash money. |
| Echo: So if you are buying some stuff in the like really big department stores and we are paying the money, they will ask you 刷卡还是现金？ (Shuākǎhái shì xiànjīn?) |
| Anthony: And that’s when you are without card, the Union Pay Card. |
| Echo: Yeah 刷卡还是现金？ (Shuākǎhái shì xiànjīn?) |
| Anthony: Yeah do you want to pay by card or by cash? |
| Echo: And then they will ask you about this word. 密码 (mìmǎ) |
| Anthony: And that’s the password. |
| Echo: 密码 (mìmǎ) |
| Anthony: And they will give you this little contraption and you can punch it… |
| Echo: Yeah 有密码吗？ (Yǒu mìmǎ ma?) |
| Anthony: Do you have a password? |
| Echo: 有密码吗？ (Yǒu mìmǎ ma?) |
| Anthony: Okay now if you want to get cash, you got to go to this place. |
| Echo: ATM机。 (ATMjī) |
| Anthony: Yes and you guessed right, this is the word for ATM. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Anthony: Very ingenious. Just putting the word machine after ATM. |
| Echo: Yeah it’s like DVD机,(DVDjī,) like DVD machine. |
| Anthony: Yes. |
| Echo: ATM机在哪儿？ (ATMjī zài nǎr?) |
| Anthony: Yeah where is the ATM machine? |
| Echo: ATM机在哪儿？ (ATMjī zài nǎr?) |
| Anthony: And you might get pointed in a bunch of directions. |
| Echo: Yes because they have a lot. |
| Anthony: Okay. So that’s it for our vocab section. We are going to go right on over to the grammar point. |
| Echo: Okay. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Anthony: Okay. So the focus of today’s grammar section is on the usage of the verb can or to be able to. |
| Echo: 可以 (Kěyǐ) |
| Anthony: Now this is an auxiliary verb that expresses permission or possibility. It’s similar to the English auxiliary verb may. |
| Echo: Using 可以 (Kěyǐ) in a question is a very common way to ask for permission. In our dialogue, we saw this 可以刷卡吗？ (Kěyǐ shuākǎ ma?) |
| Anthony: Can I use my credit card? |
| Echo: 可以刷卡吗？ (Kěyǐ shuākǎ ma?) |
| Anthony: Now because this is an auxiliary verb, it should be followed by another verb. |
| Echo: Right for example, 我可以去吗？ (Wǒ kěyǐ qù ma?) |
| Anthony: Can I go there? |
| Echo: 我可以去吗？ (Wǒ kěyǐ qù ma?) The verb 去 (Qù) “to go” follows 可以 (Kěyǐ) |
| Anthony: Now before we take a look at another example, let’s introduce the sentence pattern to follow. |
| Echo: Okay so the sentence pattern is, subject plus 可以 (Kěyǐ) plus a verb. |
| Anthony: So give us an example. |
| Echo: 你可以来。 (Nǐ kěyǐ lái.) |
| Anthony: You can come. |
| Echo: 你可以来。 (Nǐ kěyǐ lái.) So the subject is 你 (Nǐ) here and the verb is 来. (Lái.) |
| Anthony: Yeah it’s pretty simple. Now there is one thing to note. When the subject is obvious, we can just simply omit it. |
| Echo: Yeah in the next sample sentences, we are going to omit the pronoun, the subject 可以过吗？ (Kěyǐguò ma?) |
| Anthony: Can I cross, can I pass? |
| Echo: 可以过吗？ (Kěyǐguò ma?) |
| Anthony: And what was the pronoun omitted there? |
| Echo: It is 我。 (Wǒ.) |
| Anthony: I. |
| Echo: 可以停车吗？ (Kěyǐ tíngchē ma?) |
| Anthony: Can you park the car? |
| Echo: 可以停车吗？ (Kěyǐ tíngchē ma?) And the subject omitted was 你 (Nǐ) |
| Anthony: You. |
| Echo: 可以看电视吗？ (Kěyǐ kàn diànshì ma?) |
| Anthony: Can I watch TV? |
| Echo: 可以看电视吗？ (Kěyǐ kàn diànshì ma?) And the subject omitted was 我 (Wǒ) |
| Anthony: Okay so there are two ways of responding to a question using this verb. One is yes |
| Echo: 可以 (Kěyǐ) |
| Anthony: And the other is no. |
| Echo: 不可以 (Bù kěyǐ) For example, like the question can be 你可以过来吗？ (Nǐ kěyǐ guòlái ma?) |
| Anthony: Can you come over here? |
| Echo: 你可以过来吗？ (Nǐ kěyǐ guòlái ma?) |
| Anthony: One answer is |
| Echo: 可以 (Kěyǐ) |
| Anthony: Yes I can come over. |
| Echo: Or 不可以。 (Bù kěyǐ.) |
| Anthony: No I cannot come over. So you don’t have to repeat the entire sentence. All you have to say is |
| Echo: 可以 (Kěyǐ) |
| Anthony: Or |
| Echo: 不可以 (Bù kěyǐ.) |
| Anthony: Very simple. Okay let’s see another example. |
| Echo: 这儿可以下车吗？ (Zhè'er kěyǐ xià chē ma?) |
| Anthony: Can I get out of the car here? |
| Echo: 这儿可以下车吗？ (Zhè'er kěyǐ xià chē ma?) So the answer can be 可以 (Kěyǐ) |
| Anthony: Yes you can get out of the car here. |
| Echo: Or 不可以。 (Bù kěyǐ.) |
| Anthony: No you can’t get out of the car here because we are on the highway. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Anthony: Okay so Echo, we’ve learned a few things. Let’s go over a quick review. |
| Echo: Okay right you place 可以 (Kěyǐ) in between the subject and the verb. |
| Anthony: Okay so let’s see one more sample sentence. |
| Echo: 我可以坐吗？ (Wǒ kěyǐ zuò ma?) |
| Anthony: Can I sit? |
| Echo: Yeah 我可以坐吗？ (Wǒ kěyǐ zuò ma?) |
| Anthony: And to answer, all you have to say is |
| Echo: 可以 (Kěyǐ) |
| Anthony: Yes you can sit or |
| Echo: 不可以。 (Bù kěyǐ.) |
| Anthony: No you cannot sit. |
| Echo: Right. |
Outro |
| Anthony: Okay so that does it for our grammar section today. Okay so if you want to brush up on everything that you’ve learned today, come to the website chineseclass101.com, become a subscriber. For only $4 a month, you can become a basic subscriber. You get our lesson notes. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Anthony: Which come to you in the form of PDFs which you can print out or take anywhere with you on your laptop. |
| Echo: Right. That’s very easy, very convenient. |
| Anthony: Very convenient and very effective. |
| Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.) |
| Anthony: Okay. So with that said, I am Anthony. |
| Echo: 我是Echo。 (Wǒ shì Echo.) |
| Anthony: From Beijing, we enjoyed having you here today and we will see you next time. |
| Echo: Okay. Thanks for listening 下次见！ (Xià cì jiàn!) |
| Anthony: Bye bye. |
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