Learn about the word "when"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Dave: Hi and welcome to chineseclass101. |
| Echo: 嗨，大家好，我是Echo. (Hāi, dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo.) |
| Dave: And I am Dave and this is our 15th podcast in the second season of our elementary series and the title of today’s lesson is, Do It Yourself in China. |
| Echo: Yeah sometimes you have to roll up your sleeves and do it by yourself. |
| Dave: And that’s the case unfortunately in our dialogue today as a repairman regretfully tells a tenant, you have to fix your own toilet. |
| Echo: That doesn’t sound like fun. |
| Dave: Now it doesn’t but luckily we have a fun lesson coming up. |
| Echo: With a lot of useful vocabulary to use with fixing things. |
| Dave: Right and if you want to fix your Mandarin, just go to chineseclass101.com where you can register for a free user account in less than 30 seconds. |
| Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.) |
| DIALOGUE |
| A:你好，物业。 (nǐhǎo, wùyè.) |
| B:我的马桶坏了。 (wǒ de mǎtǒng huài le.) |
| A:什么问题？ (shénme wèntí?) |
| B:冲水的时候，总是没水。 (chōngshuǐ de shíhou, zǒngshì méi shuǐ.) |
| A:是吗？ (shì ma?) |
| B:不冲水的时候，总是漏水。 (bù chōngshuǐ de shíhou, zǒngshì lòu shuǐ.) |
| A:是吗？ (shì ma?) |
| B:什么时候能修？ (shénme shíhòu néng xiū?) |
| A:对不起，我们不修厕所。你自己想办法吧。 (duìbuqǐ, wǒmen bù xiū cèsuǒ. nǐ zìjǐ xiǎng bànfǎ ba.) |
| Dave: One more time, a bit slower. |
| A:你好，物业。 (nǐhǎo, wùyè.) |
| B:我的马桶坏了。 (wǒ de mǎtǒng huài le.) |
| A:什么问题？ (shénme wèntí?) |
| B:冲水的时候，总是没水。 (chōngshuǐ de shíhou, zǒngshì méi shuǐ.) |
| A:是吗？ (shì ma?) |
| B:不冲水的时候，总是漏水。 (bù chōngshuǐ de shíhou, zǒngshì lòu shuǐ.) |
| A:是吗？ (shì ma?) |
| B:什么时候能修？ (shénme shíhòu néng xiū?) |
| A:对不起，我们不修厕所。你自己想办法吧。 (duìbuqǐ, wǒmen bù xiū cèsuǒ. nǐ zìjǐ xiǎng bànfǎ ba.) |
| Dave: One more time with English. |
| Echo: 你好，物业。 (nǐhǎo, wùyè.) |
| Dave: Hello repairman. |
| Echo: 我的马桶坏了。 (wǒ de mǎtǒng huài le.) |
| Dave: My toilet is broken. |
| Echo: 什么问题？ (shénme wèntí?) |
| Dave: What’s the problem? |
| Echo: 冲水的时候，总是没水。 (chōngshuǐ de shíhou, zǒngshì méi shuǐ.) |
| Dave: When I flush, there is never any water. |
| Echo: 是吗？ (shì ma?) |
| Dave: Really? |
| Echo: 不冲水的时候，总是漏水。 (bù chōngshuǐ de shíhou, zǒngshì lòu shuǐ.) |
| Dave: When I don’t flush, water leaks. |
| Echo: 是吗？ (shì ma?) |
| Dave: Really? |
| Echo: 什么时候能修？ (shénme shíhòu néng xiū?) |
| Dave: When can you fix it? |
| Echo: 对不起，我们不修厕所。你自己想办法吧。 (duìbuqǐ, wǒmen bù xiū cèsuǒ. nǐ zìjǐ xiǎng bànfǎ ba.) |
| Dave: I am sorry. We don’t fix toilets. You should find a way to fix it yourself. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Dave: Echo, has this situation ever happened to you? |
| Echo: Unfortunately yes it has. Well in my experience, the [*] are very expensive and they don’t fix anything. |
| Dave: Really? |
| Echo: Uhoo… |
| Dave: All right. I have my shower fixed for only 10 quays one time. |
| Echo: Umm that’s cheap and so the question is, if a repairman can’t fix a problem, what do you do? |
| Dave: You pray or you do it yourself. |
| Echo: So in today’s vocabulary, we have a list of vocab words of different things that can break in your apartment. |
| Dave: Along with a lot of other great words. |
| Echo: Okay so let’s go to the vocab now. |
| Dave: And now the vocab section. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Echo: 物业 (wùyè) |
| Dave: Repairman. |
| Echo: 马桶 (mǎtǒng) |
| Dave: Toilet bowl. |
| Echo: 冲水 (chōngshuǐ) |
| Dave: To flush. |
| Echo: 漏水 (lòu shuǐ) |
| Dave: To leak water. |
| Echo: 时候 (shíhou) |
| Dave: Time. |
| Echo: 总是 (zǒngshì) |
| Dave: Always. |
| Echo: 能 (néng) |
| Dave: To be able to. |
| Echo: 修 (xiū) |
| Dave: To repair. |
| Echo: 自己 (zìjǐ) |
| Dave: One self. |
| Echo: 办法 (bànfǎ) |
| Dave: Method. |
| Echo: 办法 (bànfǎ) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Dave: Okay. Let’s take a closer look at today’s vocabulary. |
| Echo: Okay the first word is 物业。 (Wùyè) |
| Dave: Repairman. |
| Echo: 物业。 (Wùyè) |
| Dave: And this can be used for any kind of handyman, repairman, plumber, carpenter. |
| Echo: 物业修了我的马桶。 (Wùyè xiūle wǒ de mǎtǒng.) |
| Dave: The repairman fixed my toilet. |
| Echo: 物业修了我的马桶。 (Wùyè xiūle wǒ de mǎtǒng.) |
| Dave: The repairman fixed my toilet. Okay and the next word is |
| Echo: 马桶。 (Mǎtǒng.) |
| Dave: Toilet bowl. |
| Echo: 马桶。 (Mǎtǒng.) |
| Dave: Right and it’s important to distinguish that this is the seated toilet. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Dave: There are two types of toilets in China as well as some other Asian countries. There is one that you sit on which we are familiar with in Europe and North America. |
| Echo: Yeah 马桶。 (Mǎtǒng.) |
| Dave: And then there is one that you don’t sit on. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Dave: And what is that called Echo? |
| Echo: It’s 蹲式厕所 (Dūn shì cèsuǒ) I guess. |
| Dave: Okay we will leave it at that then. All right, so another example sentence. |
| Echo: 我的马桶不能用。 (Wǒ de mǎtǒng bùnéng yòng.) |
| Dave: My toilet is out of order. |
| Echo: 我的马桶不能用。 (Wǒ de mǎtǒng bùnéng yòng.) |
| Dave: My toilet doesn’t work. |
| Echo: 冲水。 (Chōng shuǐ.) |
| Dave: To flush. |
| Echo: 冲水，马桶冲水的时候有问题。 (Chōng shuǐ, mǎtǒng chōng shuǐ de shíhòu yǒu wèntí.) |
| Dave: When I flush the toilet, there is a problem. |
| Echo: 马桶冲水的时候有问题。 (Mǎtǒng chōng shuǐ de shíhòu yǒu wèntí.) |
| Dave: And our next word follows from our broken appliances theme today. |
| Echo: 漏水。 (Lòushuǐ) |
| Dave: To leak water. |
| Echo: 漏水。 (Lòushuǐ) |
| Dave: My cup is leaking water. |
| Echo: 我的杯子有点漏水。 (Wǒ de bēizi yǒudiǎn lòushuǐ.) |
| Dave: Time. |
| Echo: 时候。 (Shíhòu.) |
| Dave: Time and we are going to take a closer look at this word in our grammar section later on. |
| Echo: 他什么时候到？ (Tā shénme shíhòu dào?) |
| Dave: When will he arrive? |
| Echo: 他什么时候到？ (Tā shénme shíhòu dào?) And the next word 总是。 (Zǒng shì.) |
| Dave: Always. |
| Echo: 总是。 (Zǒng shì.) |
| Dave: And this is another useful adverb. So take the time and internalize it. |
| Echo: 他总是帮助别人。 (Tā zǒng shì bāngzhù biérén.) |
| Dave: He always helps other people. |
| Echo: 他总是帮助别人。 (Tā zǒng shì bāngzhù biérén.) |
| Dave: Okay and the next word. |
| Echo: 能。 (Néng.) |
| Dave: To be able to. |
| Echo: 能。 (Néng.) |
| Dave: And actually to be willing and able. |
| Echo: Yeah 你能告诉我吗？ (Nǐ néng gàosù wǒ ma?) |
| Dave: Are you able to tell me? |
| Echo: 你能告诉我吗？ (Nǐ néng gàosù wǒ ma?) |
| Dave: Can you tell me? |
| Echo: 修。 (Xiū.) |
| Dave: To repair. |
| Echo: 修，我不会修洗衣机。 (Xiū, wǒ bù huì xiū xǐyījī.) |
| Dave: I don’t know how to fix a washing machine. |
| Echo: 我不会修洗衣机。 (Wǒ bù huì xiū xǐyījī.) |
| Dave: And Echo, how are you at repairing things? |
| Echo: I am not very good. I can’t do it myself. |
| Dave: And that leads us to our next word |
| Echo: 自己。 (Zìjǐ.) |
| Dave: One’s self. |
| Echo: 自己。我自己做了饭。 (Zìjǐ. Wǒ zìjǐ zuòle fàn.) |
| Dave: I cooked it by myself. |
| Echo: 我自己做了饭。 (Wǒ zìjǐ zuòle fàn.) |
| Dave: I cooked it myself. Okay that does it for our vocab section. Let’s move on to grammar. |
| Echo: 好。 (Hǎo.) |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Dave: It’s grammar time. So the focus of this lesson is when. |
| Echo: 什么时候。 (Shénme shíhòu.) |
| Dave: This word is a combination of what |
| Echo: 什么 (Shénme) |
| Dave: And time |
| Echo: 时候 (Shíhòu) |
| Dave: So together we get, what time. |
| Echo: 什么时候。 (Shénme shíhòu.) |
| Dave: In the dialogue, we heard this sentence |
| Echo: 什么时候能修？ (Shénme shíhòu néng xiū?) |
| Dave: When will you be able to fix it? |
| Echo: 什么时候能修？ (Shénme shíhòu néng xiū?) |
| Dave: And this question was asked in the future tense. |
| Echo: So for the future tense, we put 什么时候 (Shénme shíhòu) between the subject and the object phrase. |
| Dave: Right. However, when the subject is apparent, it can be omitted, such as in that example. |
| Echo: 什么时候能修？ (Shénme shíhòu néng xiū?) |
| Dave: Let’s take a look at a sample sentence using when in the future tense. |
| Echo: 他什么时候回来？ (Tā shénme shíhòu huílái?) |
| Dave: When will he return? |
| Echo: 他什么时候回来？ (Tā shénme shíhòu huílái?) So since we are speaking in the future tense, 什么时候 (Shénme shíhòu) is placed before the verb phrase 回来。 (Huílái.) |
| Dave: Now let’s go over asking when in the past tense. |
| Echo: In the past tense, 的 (De) is used instead of 了 (Le) to indicate that an action took place in the past. |
| Dave: For example |
| Echo: 冰箱什么时候修好的？ (Bīngxiāng shénme shíhòu xiūhǎo de?) |
| Dave: When was the refrigerator fixed? |
| Echo: 冰箱什么时候修好的？ (Bīngxiāng shénme shíhòu xiūhǎo de?) |
| Dave: And one more example in the past tense? |
| Echo: 你什么时候学的中文？ (Nǐ shénme shíhòu xué de zhōngwén?) |
| Dave: When did you study Chinese? |
| Echo: 你什么时候学的中文？ (Nǐ shénme shíhòu xué de zhōngwén?) So the point to take away from this is that we use 的 to mark the past tense when asking a question. |
| Dave: Right. So now that we’ve covered future tense and the interrogative past tense. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Dave: Now let’s see how to make a statement in the past tense using when. |
| Echo: So how we do this is to place 的时候 (De shíhòu) after the completive verb or adjective. |
| Dave: A good example to start off with is this. |
| Echo: 我小的时候。 (Wǒ xiǎo de shíhòu.) |
| Dave: When I was little |
| Echo: 我小的时候。 (Wǒ xiǎo de shíhòu.) |
| Dave: Right. We use this structure when talking about something that happened in the past relative to another event or action. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Dave: For example |
| Echo: 冲水的时候总是没水。 (Chōng shuǐ de shíhòu zǒng shì méi shuǐ.) |
| Dave: When I flush it, there is always no water. |
| Echo: 冲水的时候总是没水。 (Chōng shuǐ de shíhòu zǒng shì méi shuǐ.) |
| Dave: When I flush it, there is never any water. Okay another example from the dialogue. |
| Echo: 不冲水的时候总是漏水。 (Bù chōng shuǐ de shíhòu zǒng shì lòushuǐ.) |
| Dave: When I don’t flush, it always leaks. |
| Echo: 不冲水的时候总是漏水。 (Bù chōng shuǐ de shíhòu zǒng shì lòushuǐ.) |
| Dave: So to review, Echo, how do we ask when in Chinese? |
| Echo: 什么时候。 (Shénme shíhòu.) |
| Dave: Right and we place this between the subject and the object phrase. |
| Echo: Right. In the asking 什么时候 (Shénme shíhòu) past tense, we use 的 (De) instead of 了 (Le). For example 你什么时候睡的觉？ (Nǐ shénme shíhòu shuì de jué?) |
| Dave: When did you fall asleep and finally using when in relation to an event or action. |
| Echo: 我小的时候喜欢吃冰棍儿。 (Wǒ xiǎo de shíhòu xǐhuān chī bīnggùn er.) |
Outro |
| Dave: When I was little, I liked to eat popsicles. Okay that’s it for today. From Beijing, I am Dave. |
| Echo: 我是Echo. (Wǒ shì Echo.) |
| Dave: And we will see you next week. |
| Echo: 下周见 (Xià zhōu jiàn) Bye bye. |
| Dave: Bye bye. |
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