Learn a sentence pattern that will help you make suggestions or ask for an opinion
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Brendan: You’re listening to Chineseclass101.com, the fastest, easiest and funniest way to learn Chinese. I’m Brendan. |
| Echo: Hi, 大家好，我是Echo.(Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo.) |
| Brendan: And we’re coming at you from Beijing today with Lower Intermediate Series, Season 1, Lesson 19 – “Typos in Chinese”. |
| Echo: So, today’s conversation takes place on the street, between two friends. |
| Brendan: Yes, one of them is very excited about his new business , the other of whom is an inspiring editor. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Brendan: Because they’re friends… |
| Echo: They’re speaking casual mandarin. |
| Brendan: As usual. Now, we’re going to take you to the dialogue in just a moment, but before we do that, a reminder. If you’d like to practice what you learned in this lesson or in any of our other lessons, log in to our premium Learning Center and we’ve got trained professional standing by waiting to help you practice your Chinese. Let’s go to the dialogue. That’s right. Today’s dialogue is devoted to typos in Neon Science. I mean, there’re actually blogs about this, like fail blog or every day, you know, you’ll get like five or six photographs of science with terrible typos in them. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A:你觉得我们新的店面招牌怎么样？(Nǐ juéde wǒmen xīn de diànmiàn zhāopái zěnmeyàng?) |
| B:是不是有点儿大？(Shì bù shì yǒu diǎnr dà?) |
| A:对，这样才能吸引注意嘛。(Duì, zhèyàng cáinéng xīyǐn zhùyì ma.) |
| B:对，还有很多霓虹灯。(Duì, hái yǒu hěn duō níhóngdēng.) |
| A:等等，这个字是不是写错了？(Děngděng, zhège zì shì bù shì xiěcuò le?) |
| B:天哪！(Tiānna!) |
| Brendan: Once more, slowly. |
| A:你觉得我们新的店面招牌怎么样？(Nǐ juéde wǒmen xīn de diànmiàn zhāopái zěnmeyàng?) |
| B:是不是有点儿大？(Shì bù shì yǒu diǎnr dà?) |
| A:对，这样才能吸引注意嘛。(Duì, zhèyàng cáinéng xīyǐn zhùyì ma.) |
| B:对，还有很多霓虹灯。(Duì, hái yǒu hěn duō níhóngdēng.) |
| A:等等，这个字是不是写错了？(Děngděng, zhège zì shì bù shì xiěcuò le?) |
| B:天哪！(Tiānna!) |
| Brendan: And now, with English translation. |
| A:你觉得我们新的店面招牌怎么样？(Nǐ juéde wǒmen xīn de diànmiàn zhāopái zěnmeyàng?) |
| A: What do you think of our new store sign? |
| B:是不是有点儿大？(Shì bù shì yǒu diǎnr dà?) |
| B: A bit big, isn't it? |
| A:对，这样才能吸引注意嘛。(Duì, zhèyàng cáinéng xīyǐn zhùyì ma.) |
| A: Sure. That’s how we get people’s attention. |
| B:对，还有很多霓虹灯。(Duì, hái yǒu hěn duō níhóngdēng.) |
| B: Yeah. That's a lot of neon too. |
| A:等等，这个字是不是写错了？(Děngděng, zhège zì shì bù shì xiěcuò le?) |
| A: Hang on… That’s word spell wrong, isn’t it? |
| B:天哪！(Tiānna!) |
| B: Oh, no!!! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Echo: 其实以前，前几年有很多这样的事。(Qíshí yǐqián, qián jǐ nián yǒu hěnduō zhèyàng de shì.) |
| Brendan: Well, there are a lot of, like handwritten science you’ll see in Chinese written with not exactly wrong characters, but kind of short hand characters, breakfast stands and that kind of thing, a lot of the time you’ll have 早餐 (Zǎocān) written with that 餐 (Cān) that kind of thing. Anyway, we’ve got some vocab from this dialogue and also from some related terms. So, let’s go over that very quickly. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Echo: 招牌 (zhāopái) |
| Brendan: “Sign” |
| Echo: 商店 (shāngdiàn) |
| Brendan: “Store” |
| Echo: 注意 (zhùyì) |
| Brendan: “Notice” |
| Echo: 超市 (chāoshì) |
| Brendan: “Supermarket” |
| Echo: 错字 (cuòzì) |
| Brendan: “Typo” |
| Echo: 霓虹灯 (níhóngdēng) |
| Brendan: “Neon sign” |
| Echo: 广告栏 (guǎnggào lán) |
| Brendan: “Billboard” |
| Echo: 市场开发 (shìchǎng kāifā) |
| Brendan: “Marketing” |
| Echo: 虚假广告 (xūjiǎ guǎnggào) |
| Brendan: “False advertising” |
| Echo: 虚假广告 (Xūjiǎ guǎnggào) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Brendan: So, there you go. It’s all the vocabulary you’ll need to complain about the fliers that people keep sticking under your door. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Brendan: Or, you know, the add circulars, the roll-up in [unintelligible 00:03:27] between the door and the frame I get tons of these. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| Brendan: Anyway, let’s take a look at some sample sentences to see the way that these words behave in context. |
| Echo: The first word is 招牌。(Zhāopái.) |
| Brendan: “Sign” |
| Echo: 招牌，我们需要一个新的招牌。(Zhāopái, wǒmen xūyào yīgè xīn de zhāopái.) |
| Brendan: “We need a new sign.” |
| Echo: 我们需要一个新的招牌。(Wǒmen xūyào yīgè xīn de zhāopái.). Next word is 商店。(Shāngdiàn.) |
| Brendan: “Store” |
| Echo: 商店，去商店买瓶水回来。(Shāngdiàn, qù shāngdiàn mǎi píng shuǐ huílái.) |
| Brendan: “Go to the store and buy a bottle of water.” |
| Echo: 去商店买瓶水回来。注意。(Qù shāngdiàn mǎi píng shuǐ huílái. Zhùyì.) |
| Brendan: “To notice” |
| Echo: 注意，你注意到那个小偷了吗？(Zhùyì, nǐ zhùyì dào nàgè xiǎotōule ma?) |
| Brendan: “Did you notice the thief?” |
| Echo: 你注意到那个小偷了吗？(Nǐ zhùyì dào nàgè xiǎotōule ma?) |
| Brendan: The good news is that usually you will. The pick pockets I’ve seen in Beijing, there aren’t that many and they’re mostly not very good. |
| Echo: 真的吗？(Zhēn de ma?) |
| Brendan: Yes, they’re pretty obvious. |
| Echo: 但是有一个地方特别容易丢东西就是超市。(Dànshì yǒu yīgè dìfāng tèbié róngyì diū dōngxī jiùshì chāoshì.) |
| Brendan: “A supermarket” |
| Echo: 超市，这个超市真大。(Chāoshì, zhège chāoshì zhēn dà.) |
| Brendan: “this supermarket is huge.”. Actually, this is not as much of a redundancy as you might expect in English, because for 超市 it originally meant “supermarket”, which is a very large place. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Brendan: But now actually, even a small store can be described as a 超市。(Chāoshì.) |
| Echo: 没错，就是你可以自己选择东西，拿好了以后去付钱的全是超市。 (Méi cuò, jiùshì nǐ kěyǐ zìjǐ xuǎnzé dōngxī, ná hǎole yǐhòu qù fù qián de quán shì chāoshì.) |
| Brendan: Yes, so lot of the time it’s actually referring to something more like a convenient store. |
| Echo: 这个超市真大。(Zhège chāoshì zhēn dà.) Ok, the next word is 错字。(Cuòzì.) |
| Brendan: That is a “typo” or a “spelling error”. |
| Echo: 错字，句子中有错字吗？(Cuòzì, jùzi zhōng yǒu cuòzì ma?) |
| Brendan: “Are there any spelling errors in this sentence?” |
| Echo: 句子中有错字吗？(Jùzi zhōng yǒu cuòzì ma?) |
| Brendan: Now, true story actually, looking at this sentence, the English word sentence is spelled s-e-n-t-e-n-c-e. I don’t know who came up with that, but either they’re very medal or they’re really terrible spellers. |
| Echo: Ok, 下一个词:霓虹灯。(Xià yīgè cí: Níhóngdēng.) |
| Brendan: That is a “neon sign”. |
| Echo: 霓虹灯，霓虹灯上可别有错字。(Níhóngdēng, níhóngdēng shàng kě bié yǒu cuòzì.) |
| Brendan: “There mustn’t be any typos in the neon sign.” |
| Echo: 广告栏。(Guǎnggào lán.) |
| Brendan: “Billboard” |
| Echo: 广告栏，广告栏上应该写什么呢？(Guǎnggào lán, guǎnggào lán shàng yīnggāi xiě shénme ne?) |
| Brendan: “What should we write on the billboard?” |
| Echo: 广告栏上应该写什么呢？市场开发。(Guǎnggào lán shàng yīnggāi xiě shénme ne? Shìchǎng kāifā.) |
| Brendan: “Marketing” |
| Echo: 市场开发，我们应该对我们的超市做些市场开发。(Shìchǎng kāifā, wǒmen yīnggāi duì wǒmen de chāoshì zuò xiē shìchǎng kāifā.) |
| Brendan: “We should do some marketing for our supermarket.” |
| Echo: 我们应该对我们的超市做些市场开发。(Wǒmen yīnggāi duì wǒmen de chāoshì zuò xiē shìchǎng kāifā.) |
| Brendan: So, here again, as you can see, the word is a little bit different from “marketing” in English. It can also just mean “advertising”. |
| Echo: Right. 我们的最后一个词是一种广告，我们都讨厌的那种，虚假广告。(Wǒmen de zuìhòu yīgè cí shì yī zhǒng guǎnggào,wǒmendōu tǎoyàn dì nà zhǒng, xūjiǎ guǎnggào.) |
| Brendan: “False advertising” |
| Echo: 虚假广告，每个人都讨厌虚假广告。(Xūjiǎ guǎnggào, měi gèrén dōu tǎoyàn xūjiǎ guǎnggào.) |
| Brendan: “Everyone hates false advertising.” |
| Echo: 每个人都讨厌虚假广告。(Měi gèrén dōutǎoyànxūjiǎ guǎnggào.) |
| Brendan: Actually, this is not true. I used to really enjoy watching the fake ads for medical devices, these thing used to go on TV about five years ago… |
| Echo: Aha, in China. |
| Brendan: Yes. And, so, there would be these devices for, you know, how to make your child taller. And there’s the thing where you attached it to the kids arms and legs and you just pulled. |
| Echo: Oh no. |
| Brendan: Yes, you can cause serious damage that way. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Brendan: But, the ads were very, very entertaining. Now, we’re going to move on to the grammar point which is, as always, the highlight of the lesson. At least for me. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| C: It’s grammar time. |
| Brendan: Now, in this dialogue we had two questions. Now, neither of these questions is actually a question… |
| Echo: Right. |
| Brendan: And such. They’re just ways of making a statement, basically. So, the first one? |
| Echo: 是不是有点大？(Shì bùshì yǒudiǎn dà?) |
| Brendan: Well, what the speaker means is “It’s a bit big.” |
| Echo: 对 (Duì). And next one is 这个字是不是写错了？(Zhège zì shì bùshì xiě cuòle?) |
| Brendan: So, that’s not a request for information, it’s a statement. In this case the statement is “Hey, that word spelled wrong.”. That’s a slightly softer way of making that statement is to frame it as a question. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Brendan: Now, the way we’re softening that statement is by, as I said, turning it into a question. And we do that by adding: |
| Echo: 是不是 (Shì bùshì) |
| Brendan: That is “is” or “isn’t” to the statement. |
| Echo: 是不是 (Shì bùshì). Have some more examples for you here: 是不是我错了。(Shì bùshì wǒ cuòle.) |
| Brendan: “Am I wrong?” or another way to translate that might be “I’m wrong, aren’t I?” |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Brendan: This suggestion is that I know I’m wrong. |
| Echo: Yes, but I don’t really want to say it. Maybe it’s bit embarrassing. |
| Brendan: Well, usually yes. |
| Echo: 是不是我错了。你最近是不是有麻烦了呢？(Shì bùshì wǒ cuòle. Nǐ zuìjìn shì bùshì yǒu máfanle ne?) |
| Brendan: “You’ve had some trouble recently, haven’t you?” |
| Echo: 你最近是不是有麻烦了呢？你是不是疯了？(Nǐ zuìjìn shì bùshì yǒu máfanle ne? Nǐ shì bùshì fēngle?) |
| Brendan: “Are you crazy?” |
| Echo: 你是不是疯了？(Nǐ shì bùshì fēngle?) |
| Brendan: The discursion is “You’re crazy, man.” So, beyond we look at for this type of question, which of course is not really a question, it just happens to resemble one… |
| Echo: Right. |
| Brendan: Chinese does this a lot and actually there’re a few ways of making statements with things that look like questions. This is the most common one… |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Brendan: And it’s the most straightforward one. |
| Echo: Right. |
Outro |
| Brendan: Now, that about wraps it up for today’s lesson. If you have any questions, because it’s a bit counter intuitive… |
| Echo: You can always write us at contactus@Chineseclass101.com or leave the comment on the site. |
| Brendan: And it will make our day. |
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