Learn about a Chinese adverb phrase
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Anthony: Welcome to chineseclass101, the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn Chinese. |
| Echo: 嗨，大家好，我是 (Hāi, dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì) Echo。 |
| Anthony: And I am Anthony and today is our last lesson in our second season of our beginner series. |
| Echo: Right 第二十五课 (Dì èrshíwǔ kè), and the title is Caught Red-handed. |
| Anthony: Yes it looks like somebody is in trouble. Okay so in today’s lesson, we are going to go over some basic phone etiquette along with some really, really great vocabulary. Okay so we have an interesting dialogue coming up, but before we go… |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Anthony: If for any reason, there are some things that are left unclear after you’ve listened to this podcast, come to the website chineseclass101.com, go to the lessons page and leave us a comment. Okay so with that said, let’s go on to this dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A.喂，Chris在吗？(Wéi, Chris zài ma?) |
| B.您是？(Nín shì?) |
| A.我是他女朋友。(Wǒ shì tā nǚpéngyǒu.) |
| B.你打错了。(Nǐ dǎcuò le.) |
| A.打错了？不可能!(Dǎcuò le ? Bù kěnéng!) |
| B.这里只有我老公叫Chris。(Zhèlǐ zhǐyǒu wǒ lǎogōng jiào Chris.) |
| Anthony: One more time a little bit slower. |
| A.喂，Chris在吗？(Wéi, Chris zài ma?) |
| B.您是？(Nín shì?) |
| A.我是他女朋友。(Wǒ shì tā nǚpéngyǒu.) |
| B.你打错了。(Nǐ dǎcuò le.) |
| A.打错了？不可能!(Dǎcuò le ? Bù kěnéng!) |
| B.这里只有我老公叫Chris。(Zhèlǐ zhǐyǒu wǒ lǎogōng jiào Chris.) |
| Anthony: And now with the English translation. |
| Echo: 喂，Chris在吗？(Wéi, Chris zài ma?) |
| Anthony: Hello, is Chris there? |
| Echo: 您是？(Nín shì?) |
| Anthony: And who are you? |
| Echo: 我是他女朋友。(Wǒ shì tā nǚpéngyǒu.) |
| Anthony: I am his girlfriend. |
| Echo: 你打错了。(Nǐ dǎcuò le.) |
| Anthony: You dialed the wrong number. |
| Echo: 打错了？不可能! (Dǎcuò le ? Bù kěnéng!) |
| Anthony: Wrong number, impossible. |
| Echo: 这里只有我老公叫Chris。(Zhèlǐ zhǐyǒu wǒ lǎogōng jiào Chris.) |
| Anthony: The only person here by the name of Chris is my husband. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Anthony: Okay so one of two things. This could be a strange coincidence. |
| Echo: Maybe there are two Chris’s. |
| Anthony: Yes maybe there is two Chris’s in China or this guy is not that smart and gave out his home phone number to his girlfriend. |
| Echo: Anyway, I think this guy deserves to be caught. |
| Anthony: Okay regardless, we have some really interesting words in our vocab section. |
| Echo: Along with some insights into Chinese phone culture. |
| Anthony: Yes right. So let’s go on to the vocab section. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Anthony: And now the vocab section. |
| Echo: 喂 (wéi) |
| Anthony: Hello |
| Echo: 喂, 喂. 在 (wéi, wéi. zài) |
| Anthony: To be at. |
| Echo: 在, 在. 找 (zài, zài. zhǎo) |
| Anthony: To look for. |
| Echo: 找, 找. 打错了 (zhǎo, zhǎo. dǎcuò le) |
| Anthony: To dial the wrong number. |
| Echo: 打错了, 打错了. 打不通 (dǎcuò le, dǎcuò le. dǎ bù tōng) |
| Anthony: To ring unsuccessfully. |
| Echo: 打不通, 打不通. 没电了 (dǎ bù tōng, dǎ bù tōng. méidiàn le) |
| Anthony: To be out of power. |
| Echo: 没电了, 没电了. 信号 (méidiàn le, méidiàn le. xìnhào) |
| Anthony: Reception. |
| Echo: 信号, 信号. 信号 (xìnhào, xìnhào. xìnhào) |
| Anthony: Okay the theme of today’s vocab lesson is phone etiquette. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Echo: And the first word you need to know when answering the telephone is 喂 (wéi) |
| Anthony: Yes this is hello but you can only say this when answering the telephone. |
| Echo: 喂 (wéi) |
| Anthony: Hello. |
| Echo: 喂，您好。(Wèi, nín hǎo) |
| Anthony: Yes altogether this is probably the most polite way that you can answer telephone. |
| Echo: Right. This next word is a verb and we saw it in the previous lesson as a preposition. |
| Anthony: Yes. |
| Echo: 在 (Zài) |
| Anthony: To be at. |
| Echo: 在 (Zài) If I am calling Anthony, I can ask 请问Anthony在吗？ (Qǐngwèn Anthony zài ma?) |
| Anthony: Anthony speaking. |
| Echo: 请问Anthony在吗？(Qǐngwèn Anthony zài ma?) |
| Anthony: Excuse me, is Anthony here? Okay now there is two possible answers to this question. |
| Echo: 他在，等一下。(Tā zài, děng yīxià.) |
| Anthony: He is here, wait a moment. |
| Echo: 他在，等一下。(Tā zài, děng yīxià.) |
| Anthony: He is here, wait a moment! I will go get him. |
| Echo: Or 他不在。(Tā bùzài.) |
| Anthony: No he is not here. |
| Echo: 他不在。(Tā bùzài.) |
| Anthony: And the next word is |
| Echo: 找 (Zhǎo) |
| Anthony: And this is the verb, to look for |
| Echo: 找。 (Zhǎo.) So instead of saying 请问Anthony在吗？(Qǐngwèn Anthony zài ma?) I can also say 我找Anthony。(Wǒ zhǎo Anthony.) |
| Anthony: I am looking for Anthony. |
| Echo: 我找Anthony。Or 我找李先生。(Wǒ zhǎo Anthony.Or wǒ zhǎo lǐ xiānshēng.) |
| Anthony: I am looking for Mr. Lee. |
| Echo: 我找李先生。(Wǒ zhǎo lǐ xiānshēng.) |
| Anthony: So if you’ve accidentally dialed the wrong number, you’ve done this. |
| Echo: 打错了 (Dǎ cuòle) |
| Anthony: To dial the wrong number. |
| Echo: 打错了 (Dǎ cuòle) |
| Anthony: Right. |
| Echo: 不好意思，你打错了。(Bù hǎoyìsi, nǐ dǎ cuòle.) |
| Anthony: I am sorry but you have the wrong number. |
| Echo: 不好意思，你打错了。(Bù hǎoyìsi, nǐ dǎ cuòle.) |
| Anthony: I am sorry. You’ve dialed the wrong number. Okay so this next word Echo, |
| Echo: 打不通。(Dǎ bùtōng.) |
| Anthony: To ring unsuccessfully. |
| Echo: 打不通。(Dǎ bùtōng.) |
| Anthony: And this is specific to China because in the US, we have voice mail on our cell phones or we have an answer machine at home whereas here it just rings and rings. |
| Echo: Yeah so like maybe there is nobody at home or maybe the line is busy. |
| Anthony: Right. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Anthony: So you can say… |
| Echo: So it’s just 打不通。他的电话打不通。(Dǎ bùtōng. Tā de diànhuà dǎ bùtōng.) |
| Anthony: His phone rang and rang. |
| Echo: 他的电话打不通。(Tā de diànhuà dǎ bùtōng.) |
| Anthony: Right. So nobody answered. And if you are lucky, you will get a nice tune when you are calling the phone. Most likely Kenny G. So these next two phrases are very useful for when you want to quickly get out of a long conversation. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) The first one is 没电了。(Méi diànle.) |
| Anthony: Yes I am out of power. |
| Echo: 没电了。(Méi diànle.) |
| Anthony: My battery is dead. |
| Echo: 对不起，我的手机没电了。(Duìbùqǐ, wǒ de shǒujī méi diànle.) |
| Anthony: I am sorry but my phone is dead. |
| Echo: 对不起，我的手机没电了。(Duìbùqǐ, wǒ de shǒujī méi diànle.) |
| Anthony: Right and the other excuse that you can use is |
| Echo: 信号 (Xìnhào) |
| Anthony: And this means reception. |
| Echo: 信号 (Xìnhào) |
| Anthony: Wireless reception. |
| Echo: 信号不好，我听不见。(Xìnhào bù hǎo, wǒ tīng bùjiàn.) |
| Anthony: The reception is poor. I can’t hear you. |
| Echo: 信号不好，我听不见。(Xìnhào bù hǎo, wǒ tīng bùjiàn.) |
| Anthony: The signal is weak, I can’t hear you. Okay so in review, we’ve gone over some phone etiquette. Echo, when you pick up the phone, what’s the first thing that you should say? |
| Echo: 喂，您好。(Wèi, nín hǎo.) |
| Anthony: Hello. So if you are looking for somebody, there are two ways to ask if they are available. |
| Echo: Right 请问Anthony在吗？(Qǐngwèn Anthony zài ma?) |
| Anthony: Excuse me, is Anthony here? |
| Echo: Or the second way is, 我找Anthony。(Wǒ zhǎo Anthony.) |
| Anthony: Yes I am looking for Anthony. Okay and if you accidentally dialed the wrong number |
| Echo: 打错了。(Dǎ cuòle.) |
| Anthony: Right to dial incorrectly. Okay so that wraps it up for our vocab section. We are going to go on to the grammar point. |
| Echo: Okay. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Anthony: It’s grammar time. The focus of today’s grammar point is the adverb phrase |
| Echo: 只有 (Zhǐyǒu) |
| Anthony: This means “only to have”. |
| Echo: 只有 (Zhǐyǒu) |
| Anthony: Now in the dialogue, we heard this sentence. |
| Echo: 这里只有我老公叫Chris。(Zhèlǐ zhǐyǒu wǒ lǎogōng jiào Chris.) |
| Anthony: The only person here called Chris is my husband. |
| Echo: 这里只有我老公叫Chris。(Zhèlǐ zhǐyǒu wǒ lǎogōng jiào Chris.) |
| Anthony: And here the adverb is used for emphasis. |
| Echo: 只有我老公 (Zhǐyǒu wǒ lǎogōng) |
| Anthony: Yes the lady on the phone wants to emphasize that it is her husband. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Anthony: And not the other woman’s boyfriend. Now we have some more examples to go through. |
| Echo: 这里只有我会中文。(Zhèlǐ zhǐyǒu wǒ huì zhōngwén.) |
| Anthony: I am the only one who knows Chinese here. |
| Echo: 这里只有我会中文。(Zhèlǐ zhǐyǒu wǒ huì zhōngwén.) |
| Anthony: The emphasis is on being the only person in the place who is able to speak Chinese. |
| Echo: Right 只有我会 (Zhǐyǒu wǒ huì) |
| Anthony: Okay next sample. |
| Echo: 那家公司只有三个人。(Nà jiā gōngsī zhǐyǒu sān gèrén.) |
| Anthony: That Company only has three employees. |
| Echo: 那家公司只有三个人。(Nà jiā gōngsī zhǐyǒu sān gèrén.) |
| Anthony: And Echo, what is the emphasis on here? |
| Echo: It’s like 只有三个人。(Zhǐyǒu sān gèrén.) |
| Anthony: Yes only three people running the entire shop. Okay now there is one thing that we want to point out. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Anthony: Another point that we want to make. Only a noun or a noun phrase can follow the adverb. |
| Echo: Right 只有 (Zhǐyǒu) is never followed by a verb. |
| Anthony: Right. So let’s go over some more examples. |
| Echo: 便宜点吧，我只有两块。(Piányí diǎn ba, wǒ zhǐyǒu liǎng kuài.) |
| Anthony: How about you make it a little cheaper? I only have two kuai. |
| Echo: 便宜点吧，我只有两块。(Piányí diǎn ba, wǒ zhǐyǒu liǎng kuài.) |
| Anthony: And Echo, what is the noun that follows the adverb? |
| Echo: It’s 两块 (Liǎng kuài), it’s a noun phrase. |
| Anthony: Yes two kuai. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Anthony: So Echo, what is the noun phrase that follows the adverb. |
| Echo: 两块 (Liǎng kuài) |
| Anthony: Two kuai. |
| Echo: Yeah and when you haggle with someone on the price, you can use this one. |
| Anthony: Yeah of course. So I only have two kuai on me. |
| Echo: Yeah 我只有两块。(Wǒ zhǐyǒu liǎng kuài.) |
| Anthony: Okay so what’s our next sample? |
| Echo: 他只有一个女儿。(Tā zhǐyǒu yīgè nǚ'ér.) |
| Anthony: He only has one daughter. |
| Echo: 他只有一个女儿。(Tā zhǐyǒu yīgè nǚ'ér.) |
| Anthony: Okay and this next one, this is a good one for starting a conversation. |
| Echo: 我只有一个问题。(Wǒ zhǐyǒu yīgè wèntí.) |
| Anthony: I only have one question. |
| Echo: 我只有一个问题。(Wǒ zhǐyǒu yīgè wèntí.) |
| Anthony: But it usually turns out that you have more than one question. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Anthony: Okay so our last sample sentence that we are going to give you. |
| Echo: 菜单上只有中文。(Càidān shàng zhǐyǒu zhòng wén.) |
| Anthony: The menu only has Chinese. |
| Echo: 菜单上只有中文。(Càidān shàng zhǐyǒu zhòng wén.) |
| Anthony: The menu only has Chinese. Now if the menu has pictures, it’s okay because you can still look and find out and figure out what it is but if your Chinese is still at the beginner level and menu only in Chinese is quite difficult. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Anthony: Okay so we are going to go over a quick review. We have a new adverb phrase that we learned in this lesson. Echo, what is it? |
| Echo: 只有。(Zhǐyǒu.) |
| Anthony: This means only and it is used for emphasis. |
| Echo: And we only place a noun or a noun phrase after 只有。(Zhǐyǒu.) |
| Anthony: Right. We cannot put a verb after it. |
| Echo: We have one more sample sentence for you. 我只有十块钱。(Wǒ zhǐyǒu shí kuài qián.) |
| Anthony: I only have $10. |
| Echo: 我只有十块钱。(Wǒ zhǐyǒu shí kuài qián.) |
| Anthony: I only have $10, and luckily for you, it only costs $10 to sign up with our premium subscription… |
| Echo: Right. |
| Anthony: At chineseclass101.com |
| Echo: 多么便宜。(Duōme piányí.) |
| Anthony: Yes very cheap and you are going to get a lot of value out of this. Not only can you listen to our entire archive of audio lessons, you are also going to get access to PDFs with fantastic Chinese characters on them along with the pinyin. |
| Echo: Right. |
Outro |
| Anthony: You can’t ask for anything else. Okay so from Beijing, I am Anthony. |
| Echo: 我是Echo。(Wǒ shì Echo.) |
| Anthony: And for the end of season 2, beginner series, I am Anthony. |
| Echo: 我是Echo。(Wǒ shì Echo.) |
| Anthony: All right. We will see you next time, bye bye. |
| Echo: 下次见 (Xià cì jiàn)，Bye bye. |
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