Learn an expression that means "how" or "why"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Brendan: Welcome to chineseclass101.com. I am Brendan standing in for David. |
| Echo: Hi, 大家好(Dàjiā hǎo), 我是(Wǒ shì) Echo。 |
| Brendan: Lower beginner lesson, season 1, Lesson 20. |
| Echo: Making Sure Your Chinese Friend is Okay. |
| Brendan: Yeah, this is a perennial topic of conversation in China. |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| Brendan: You know, are you feeling well, are you getting enough sunshine, are you drinking hot water. |
| Echo: Yeah, in China, we really like to talk about those kind of topics. |
| Brendan: Well it’s one of the ways you express. |
| Echo: Yeah your care like… |
| Brendan: For other people. |
| Echo: Yeah your consideration. |
| Brendan: Is just by nagging them. |
| Echo: So in this dialogue, we have two friends and one is not feeling very well. So the other one is asking if he is okay. |
| Brendan: Right, as always, this is in casual Mandarin. |
| Echo:我们听一下吧!(Wǒmen tīng yīxià ba!) |
| DIALOGUE |
| A: 你不舒服吗？(Nǐ bù shūfu ma?) |
| B: 怎么这么问？(Zěnme zhème wèn?) |
| A: 你一直在打喷嚏。(Nǐ yìzhí zài dǎ pēntì.) |
| B: 哦，这两天有点儿过敏。(O, zhè liǎng tiān yǒudiǎnr guòmǐn.) |
| A: 啊，多注意身体。(A, duō zhùyì shēntǐ.) |
| Brendan: One more time, a little more slowly. |
| A: 你不舒服吗？(Nǐ bù shūfu ma?) |
| B: 怎么这么问？(Zěnme zhème wèn?) |
| A: 你一直在打喷嚏。(Nǐ yìzhí zài dǎ pēntì.) |
| B: 哦，这两天有点儿过敏。(O, zhè liǎng tiān yǒudiǎnr guòmǐn.) |
| A: 啊，多注意身体。(A, duō zhùyì shēntǐ.) |
| Brendan: And now with English translation. |
| Echo: 你不舒服吗？(Nǐ bù shūfu ma?) |
| Brendan: You are not feeling well? |
| Echo: 怎么这么问？(Zěnme zhème wèn?) |
| Brendan: Why do you ask? |
| Echo: 你一直在打喷嚏。(Nǐ yìzhí zài dǎ pēntì.) |
| Brendan: You keep sneezing. |
| Echo:哦，这两天有点儿过敏。(O, zhè liǎng tiān yǒudiǎnr guòmǐn.) |
| Brendan: Oh my allergies have been acting up for the last couple of days. |
| Echo: 啊，多注意身体。(A, duō zhùyì shēntǐ.) |
| Brendan: Ah take care of yourself. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Echo: So have you been asked questions like this? |
| Brendan: You know at this point, I am close enough with… |
| Echo: Like to be the one who asks other people. |
| Brendan: Well no, I am close enough that people no longer express concern just like stop sniffling. |
| Echo: 天呀! 好恐怖。(Tiān ya! Hǎo kǒngbù.) |
| Brendan: And this dialogue or a version of it is so common like you can find it playing out every day. |
| Echo: Every day. |
| Brendan: All over the place. |
| Echo: 没错!(Méi cuò!) And if you are in China, you got to you know just get used to that right? |
| Brendan: Yeah. I mean people aren’t being nosy and you know, they are not trying to imply that they are grossed out by your constant sneezing. It’s just one of the ways that people express concern and affection. |
| Echo: Exactly and today’s vocab is actually all about like how to express your consideration of other people. |
| Brendan: Yeah. |
| Echo: Or how to answer other people. |
| Brendan: Yeah. |
| Echo: When you are asked. |
| Brendan: Let’s take a look. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Echo: 不舒服。(bù shūfu.) |
| Brendan: Uncomfortable. |
| Echo: 不舒服, 不舒服, 这么。(bù shūfu, bù shūfu, zhème.) |
| Brendan: So… |
| Echo: 这么, 这么, 问。(zhème, zhème, wèn.) |
| Brendan: To ask. |
| Echo: 问, 问, 一直。(wèn, wèn, yìzhí.) |
| Brendan: Continually. |
| Echo:一直, 一直, 打喷嚏。(yìzhí, yìzhí, dǎ pēntì.) |
| Brendan: To sneeze. |
| Echo: 打喷嚏, 打喷嚏, 这两天。(dǎ pēntì, dǎ pēntì, zhè liǎng tiān.) |
| Brendan: The last couple of days. |
| Echo: 这两天, 这两天, 过敏。(zhè liǎng tiān, zhè liǎng tiān, guòmǐn.) |
| Brendan: Allergy. |
| Echo: 过敏, 过敏, 多。(guòmǐn, guòmǐn, duō.) |
| Brendan: More. |
| Echo:多, 多, 注意身体。(duō, duō, Zhùyì shēntǐ.) |
| Brendan: To take care of oneself. |
| Echo:注意身体, 注意身体。(Zhùyì shēntǐ, Zhùyì shēntǐ.) |
| Brendan: Let’s take a look at how some of these words are used. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Echo: 第一个词是.....(Dì yī gè cí shì.....) |
| Brendan: Continually. |
| Echo: 一直。(Yīzhí.) |
| Brendan: Now in the dialogue, we saw that in the sentence, you keep sneezing. |
| Echo: 你一直在打喷嚏。(Nǐ yīzhí zài dǎ pēntì.) |
| Brendan: Or you’ve been sneezing all day or something like that. |
| Echo: Yeah 你一直在打喷嚏。(Nǐ yīzhí zài dǎ pēntì.) |
| Brendan: And you use this word 一直(Yīzhí) when you want to emphasize that something keeps happening and has kept happening and it just happens and happens and happens. |
| Echo: Yeah比如说 他一直在睡觉。(Bǐrú shuō tā yīzhí zài shuìjiào.) |
| Brendan: He keeps sleeping. |
| Echo: 他一直在睡觉。(Tā yīzhí zài shuìjiào.) |
| Brendan: He has been sleeping the whole time. |
| Echo: 或者说 他一直吃东西, 停不下来。(Huòzhě shuō tā yīzhí chī dōngxī, tíng bù xiàlái.) |
| Brendan: He keeps eating, he just can’t stop. |
| Echo: 他一直吃东西, 停不下来。(Tā yīzhí chī dōngxī, tíng bù xiàlái.) |
| Brendan: He keeps eating, he just can’t stop. |
| Echo: Yeah so you want to use this 一直(Yīzhí) before verbs. |
| Brendan: Right. |
| Echo: Yeah and to emphasize like the action has been going on. |
| Brendan: Has been going on, continues to go on, it’s just it keeps happening. |
| Echo: Yeah 就是不停的(Jiùshì bù tíng de) never stops. Okay our next word is 打喷嚏.(Dǎ pēntì.) |
| Brendan: To sneeze. |
| Echo: 打喷嚏(Dǎ pēntì) I like this word a lot or this like verb phrase. |
| Brendan: Why is that? |
| Echo: Well because it’s interesting. It’s like it used the verb 打(Dǎ) but it’s nothing to do with you know hit. |
| Brendan: Well so many of the verbs that have 打(Dǎ) and then really don’t have anything at all to do with hitting. |
| Echo: Yeah it’s just like really colloquial and also 喷嚏(Pēntì) or really like the 嚏(Tì) is really hard to write. |
| Brendan: This is one of my favorite things to do. |
| Echo: You ask Chinese people how to write |
| Brendan: Yeah to write sneeze. It a small mean pleasure. People usually get it wrong. |
| Echo: Yeah 你会写吗?(Nǐ huì xiě ma?) |
| Brendan: I did at one point. |
| Echo: Okay next word or phrase actually I want to talk about is 这两天。(Zhè liǎng tiān.) |
| Brendan: Right. Literally that’s these two days. |
| Echo: 这两天。(Zhè liǎng tiān.) |
| Brendan: But it tends to get used in more or less the same way that in English you’d say the last couple of days. |
| Echo: 对(Duì), That’s the tricky thing in Chinese. Right whenever you see like 两天(Liǎng tiān) or 两个(Liǎng gè) or 两(Liǎng) something, it’s usually not just two. |
| Brendan: Right. It’s just a few, a couple, something like that. If people say walk a little while, we will say |
| Echo: 走两步。(Zǒu liǎng bù.) |
| Brendan: And they don’t literally mean two paces. |
| Echo: No. |
| Brendan: It’s just, it’s close. |
| Echo: Yeah 走两步就到了。(Zǒu liǎng bù jiù dàole.) |
| Brendan: Yeah in this case we are talking about 两(Liǎng) days. |
| Echo: Yeah 这两天(Zhè liǎng tiān) . For example, you can ask people 你这两天怎么样?(Nǐ zhè liǎng tiān zěnme yàng?) |
| Brendan: How have you been the last few days? |
| Echo: Yeah 你这两天怎么样? or 这两天忙吗?(Nǐ zhè liǎng tiān zěnme yàng? Or zhè liǎng tiān máng ma?) |
| Brendan: Are you busy lately? |
| Echo: 这两天忙吗? (Zhè liǎng tiān máng ma?) That’s really colloquial and really like very casual. |
| Brendan: Yeah and of course you can use it to literally mean two days as well but just as in English, you can say a few or a couple. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Brendan: It’s in this kind of vague territory. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| Brendan: And the last word is more. |
| Echo: 多。(Duō.) |
| Brendan: We see that in the very last line of the dialogue. |
| Echo: 多注意身体。(Duō zhùyì shēntǐ.) |
| Brendan: Now 注意身体(Zhùyì shēntǐ) means take care of yourself. |
| Echo: Yeah. So we see 多(Duō) is put in a very like weird position here. |
| Brendan: Yeah. Now you may have learned 多(Duō) as meaning a lot right. |
| Echo: Yeah before we learned 很多.(Hěnduō.) |
| Brendan: Right. |
| Echo: Or 这儿有很多人。(Zhè'er yǒu hěnduō rén.) |
| Brendan: There are lots of people here. This is the same word but when you see it in a statement like this |
| Echo: 多注意身体。(Duō zhùyì shēntǐ.) |
| Brendan: It means do more of whatever comes after it. |
| Echo: Yeah or 多休息.(Duō xiūxí.) |
| Brendan: Rest more. |
| Echo: 多休息。(Duō xiūxí.) |
| Brendan: If you’ve got a cold and you’ve been 一直打喷嚏(Yīzhí dǎ pēntì) people might tell you to eat more fruit. |
| Echo: 多吃水果(Duō chī shuǐguǒ) or simpler 多喝水.(Duō hē shuǐ.) |
| Brendan: Right drink more water. |
| Echo: 多喝水。(Duō hē shuǐ.) |
| Brendan: So this is one of the secondary meanings of 多.(Duō.) Next time, you see it in a sentence, take a look and see which interpretation makes sense. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| Brendan: Does it mean a lot of taking care of yourself or does it mean take more care of yourself. |
| Echo: Yeah with that, let’s go to our grammar point today. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Brendan: It’s grammar time. |
| Echo: Okay Brendan, you are going to love this grammar point. |
| Brendan: You know it. |
| Echo: Okay it’s about this word 这么.(Zhème.) |
| Brendan: Right. Now in the vocab, I defined 这么(Zhème) as so. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Brendan: And that is sort of what it means a lot of the time but we saw it in the sentence |
| Echo: 怎么这么问？(Zěnme zhème wèn?) |
| Brendan: Now 怎么(Zěnme) has been always how or why. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Brendan: 问(Wèn) we know it is to ask. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Brendan: And what the sentence 怎么这么问？(Zěnme zhème wèn?) means is why do you ask that. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Brendan: Or why do you ask that way. |
| Echo: This way. Yeah 怎么这么问？(Zěnme zhème wèn?) So you can put 这么(Zhème) in front of verbs like 问(Wèn) . |
| Brendan: Now in front of verbs, it means to verb like that. In front of adjectives, it means so adjective. |
| Echo: Yeah. Let’s have some more examples. 你可以 这么走。(Nǐ kěyǐ zhème zǒu.) |
| Brendan: You can walk this way. |
| Echo: 你可以这么走, 你怎么这么慢, 快点!(Nǐ kěyǐ zhème zǒu, nǐ zěnme zhème màn, kuài diǎn!) |
| Brendan: Why are you so slow? Hurry up. |
| Echo: 你怎么这么慢, 快点!(Nǐ zěnme zhème màn, kuài diǎn!) And now I want to introduce a sister of this word 这么(Zhème)it’s 那么.(Nàme.) |
| Brendan: Right. If 这么(Zhème) means this way, 那么(Nàme) means |
| Echo: That way. |
| Brendan: Basically. |
| Echo: Yeah. So we can say 我那么累, 你让我休息一下。(Wǒ nàme lèi, nǐ ràng wǒ xiūxí yīxià.) |
| Brendan: I am so tired. Let me rest a bit. |
| Echo: 我那么累, 你让我休息一下 or 今天那么冷, 你怎么穿那么少?(Wǒ nàme lèi, nǐ ràng wǒ xiūxí yīxià or jīntiān nàme lěng, nǐ zěnme chuān nàme shǎo?) |
| Brendan: It’s so cold today, why are you wearing so little? |
| Echo: Yeah 今天那么冷, 你怎么穿那么少?(Jīntiān nàme lěng, nǐ zěnme chuān nàme shǎo?) |
| Brendan: And the funny thing is that in English, 这么, 那么(Zhème, nàme) both tend to turn into so and you can use them pretty interchangeably. |
| Echo: Yeah exactly and if you want to like emphasize even more, then you can add 怎么(Zěnme) in front of 这么(Zhème) or 那么.(Nàme.) |
| Brendan: Right which is not just so x… |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Brendan: But how is it so x. |
| Echo: Yeah I can’t believe it. |
| Brendan: Yeah. |
| Echo: Yeah 你怎么这么傻?(Nǐ zěnme zhème shǎ?) |
| Brendan: How can you possibly be so dumb? |
| Echo: Yeah or 他怎么那么烦?(Tā zěnme nàme fán?) |
Outro |
| Brendan: Why is she so annoying? Nothing of anybody in particular there. Now that’s all the time we’ve got for today. Before we go, a quick reminder. |
| Echo: Yeah if you have any problems with today’s lesson, you can go to our premium learning center and check out our PDFs. We have all the transcript, vocab, grammar point, everything on the PDF. |
| Brendan: Yeah and it really helps to be able to read along with the lesson while you listen. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| Brendan: From Beijing, I am Brendan. |
| Echo: 我是(Wǒ shì) Echo。 |
| Brendan: Thanks for listening. |
| Echo: 網上見吧!(Wǎng shàng jiàn ba!) Bye bye. |
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