Learn about a certain Chinese character sentence that emphasizes an action, but hopefully this will just be a good review for you
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Brendan: Welcome to Chineseclass101.com, the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn Chinese. I’m Brendan. |
| Echo: 嗨，大家好，我是Echo。 (Hāi, dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo.) |
| Brendan: And we have a slice of life lesson for you today, with Lower Intermediate Series, Season 1, Lesson 8 – “Road rage in China”. |
| Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.) |
| Brendan: This something we see on the road pretty much every day in Beijing. |
| Echo: Right. It’s about a traffic accident, only, not between two cars. |
| Brendan: Yes, and I know where I saw it in this thing. My heart is pretty much always with the cyclists. |
| Echo: Yes, mine too. Let’s go listen to the dialogue now. It’s in casual mandarin, as always. |
| Brendan: We’ll take you to the dialogue in just a moment. But, before we do, a quick reminder that one of the best ways to retain the vocabulary that we cover in these lessons is with our online flash cards. |
| Echo: Yes, 没错，生词卡。 (Méi cuò, shēngcí kǎ.) |
| Brendan: Yes, it’s a really easy way of reviewing the vocabulary and making sure that you remember it properly. Let’s go to the dialogue. Now, the real killers these days, actually, are electric bikes. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A:你把我的车划了！ (Nǐ bǎ wǒ de chē huále !) |
| B:你的车！你看看我的自行车都成什么样了。 (Nǐ de chē! Nǐ kànkan wǒ de zìxíngchē dōu chéng shénmeyàng le.) |
| A:谁叫你骑车不小心！你找死吗？ (Shéi jiào nǐ qíchē bùxiǎoxīn! Nǐ zhǎo sǐ ma?) |
| B:我不小心？是你开车不小心吧？ (Wǒ bùxiǎoxīn? Shì nǐ kāichē bùxiǎoxīn ba?) |
| Brendan: Once more, slowly. |
| A:你把我的车划了！ (Nǐ bǎ wǒ de chē huále !) |
| B:你的车！你看看我的自行车都成什么样了。 (Nǐ de chē! Nǐ kànkan wǒ de zìxíngchē dōu chéng shénmeyàng le.) |
| A:谁叫你骑车不小心！你找死吗？ (Shéi jiào nǐ qíchē bùxiǎoxīn! Nǐ zhǎo sǐ ma?) |
| B:我不小心？是你开车不小心吧？ (Wǒ bùxiǎoxīn? Shì nǐ kāichē bùxiǎoxīn ba?) |
| Brendan: And now, with English translation. |
| A:你把我的车划了！ (Nǐ bǎ wǒ de chē huále !) |
| A: You scratched my car! |
| B:你的车！你看看我的自行车都成什么样了。 (Nǐ de chē! Nǐ kànkan wǒ de zìxíngchē dōu chéng shénmeyàng le.) |
| B: Your car? Look what happened to my bicycle. |
| A:谁叫你骑车不小心！你找死吗？ (Shéi jiào nǐ qíchē bùxiǎoxīn! Nǐ zhǎo sǐ ma?) |
| A: What are you doing biking carelessly. You trying to get yourself killed? |
| B:我不小心？是你开车不小心吧？ (Wǒ bùxiǎoxīn? Shì nǐ kāichē bùxiǎoxīn ba?) |
| B: Am carelessly, you are the one driving carelessly. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Echo: 完全同意，电动车。 (Wánquán tóngyì, diàndòng chē.) |
| Brendan: Yes. They’re lethal, actually. They’re really dangerous. They go as fast as cars do, sometimes faster. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Brendan: And they make no noise at all. |
| Echo: They’re really heavy, too. |
| Brendan: Yes, that’s because they’ve all got these massive acid led batteries which totally defeats the point of, you know, being 环保 (Huánbǎo) when riding a bike. |
| Echo: Yes, anyway, our vocab section today is for all of you, bikers. |
| Brendan: Like your daily commute, it is filled with danger, mayhem and the promise of death around the next corner. |
| C: And now, the vocab section. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Brendan: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| Echo: 撞车 (zhuàngchē) |
| Brendan: “To crash a car” |
| Echo: 保险 (bǎoxiǎn) |
| Brendan: “Insurance” |
| Echo: 刮蹭 (guā cèng) |
| Brendan: “To scratch” |
| Echo: 故障 (gùzhàng) |
| Brendan: “Breakdown” |
| Echo: 意外 (yìwài) |
| Brendan: “Accident” |
| Echo: 安全 (ānquán) |
| Brendan: “Safety” or “safe” |
| Echo: 安全带 (ānquándài) |
| Brendan: “Seatbelt” |
| Echo: 喇叭 (lǎba) |
| Brendan: “Horn” |
| Echo: 单行道 (dānxíngdào) |
| Brendan: “One way street” |
| Echo: 单行道 (dānxíngdào) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Brendan: So, our vocabulary this lesson is actually pretty straight forward. |
| Echo: 故障 (gùzhàng) |
| Brendan: Yes, we’re starting with the worst. This means “a breakdown”. |
| Echo: 故障 (gùzhàng) |
| Brendan: We use this when something technical goes wrong. |
| Echo: 他的车出了个很严重的故障。 (Tā de chē chūle gè hěn yánzhòng de gùzhàng.) |
| Brendan: “His car had a serious breakdown.” |
| Echo: 他的车出了个很严重的故障。 (Tā de chē chūle gè hěn yánzhòng de gùzhàng.) |
| Brendan: You know, maybe the engine fell out, but actually it happened to me in a cab once. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Brendan: So, the engine falls out onto the road and that leads to a? |
| Echo: 撞车 (zhuàngchē) |
| Brendan: Yes, crashing the car. |
| Echo: 撞车 (zhuàngchē) |
| Brendan: Now, this is a noun and also a verb. |
| Echo: Yes, 撞. (Zhuàng.) |
| Brendan: Now, 撞 (Zhuàng) means “to collide”. |
| Echo: And 车 (Chē) is, of course, “car”. |
| Brendan: Right. |
| Echo: So, you can say 那边撞车了. (Nàbiān zhuàngchēle.) |
| Brendan: “Hey, there’s a car crash over there.” |
| Echo: 那边撞车了 (Nàbiān zhuàngchēle.) |
| Brendan: Literally, “over there collide cars” or “over there cars have collided”. |
| Echo: Yes, so 撞车是一种意外。 (Zhuàngchē shì yī zhǒng yìwài.) |
| Brendan: Right. And that of course means “accident”. |
| Echo: Yes. 意外。 (Yìwài.) |
| Brendan: So, “an accident”, or most literally “something unexpected”. |
| Echo: 意外. (Yìwài.) Or, we can also say 事故，那边是出意外了吗？ (Shìgù, nà biān shì chū yìwàile ma?) |
| Brendan: “Is there an accident over there?” |
| Echo: Or, 那边是有事故了吗？ (Nà biān shì yǒu shìgùle ma?) |
| Brendan: “Is there a car accident over there?” The big difference is that 事故 (Shìgù) is more specific to cars. 意外 (Yìwài) is any kind of accident. |
| Echo: Yes, and we use 出意外. (Chū yìwài.) |
| Brendan: Literally, “to emerge”. |
| Echo: And 出事故 (Chū shìgù) is the same verb. |
| Brendan: Right. For a “breakdown”. Just remember that accidents come out of nowhere. |
| Echo: Yes, and yes they do. You hopefully have 保险. (Bǎoxiǎn.) |
| Brendan: “Insurance” |
| Echo: 保险 (bǎoxiǎn) |
| Brendan: “Insurance”. Now, that’s not just “car insurance”, that’s any kind of insurance. |
| Echo: yes, 比如说:医疗保险。 (Bǐrú shuō: Yīliáo bǎoxiǎn.) |
| Brendan: “Medical insurance” |
| Echo: 养老保险。 (Yǎnglǎo bǎoxiǎn.) |
| Brendan: “Old age insurance” |
| Echo: Great. |
| Brendan: Really, pensioned or stipend. Now, finally, we’ve got some ways to avoid accidents. |
| Echo: 安全带。 (ānquándài) |
| Brendan: Which is “seatbelt”. |
| Echo: And 喇叭。 (Lǎbā.) |
| Brendan: Which is “a horn”. |
| Echo: 安全带，喇叭。 (Ānquán dài, lǎbā.) |
| Brendan: So, remember, when you get in your car, you want to fasten your seatbelt. |
| Echo: 系安全带。 (Xì ānquán dài.) |
| Brendan: And, if you’re a Chinese driver, you really want to: |
| Echo: 按喇叭。 (Àn lǎbā.) |
| Brendan: Yes, “to press the horn” or “to push the horn”. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Brendan: All right. Now, baring all that in mind, let’s move on to the grammar section. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| C: It’s grammar time. |
| Brendan: Ok, our grammar focus today is on the? |
| Echo: “把”字句 (“Bǎ” zìjù) |
| Brendan: We’ve seen this before. But where did we see it in this dialogue? |
| Echo: In this sentence: 你把我的车划了。 (Nǐ bǎ wǒ de chē huàle.) |
| Brendan: “You scratched my car.” |
| Echo: 你把我的车划了。 (Nǐ bǎ wǒ de chē huàle.) |
| Brendan: Now, literally, that’s “You took”… |
| Echo: 你把 (Nǐ bǎ) |
| Brendan: “My car” |
| Echo: 我的车 (Wǒ de chē) |
| Brendan: “And scratched it.” |
| Echo: 划了 (Huàle) |
| Brendan: This should all be reviewed. But let’s look at one more sentence. |
| Echo: 你把我的书弄脏了。 (Nǐ bǎ wǒ de shū nòng zāng le.) |
| Brendan: “You took my book and made it dirty.” |
| Echo: 你把我的书弄脏了。 (Nǐ bǎ wǒ de shū nòng zāng le.) |
| Brendan: No, really, that’s “You got my book dirty.” |
| Echo: Right. |
| Brendan: What we want to emphasize today, anyway, is that the “把”字句。 (“Bǎ” zìjù.) Now, this is the mirror opposite of the? |
| Echo: “被”字句 (“Bèi” zìjù) |
| Brendan: We learned about that in Lesson 3. |
| Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.) |
| Brendan: You can take any 把 (Bǎ) sentence and turn it into a 被 (Bèi) sentence. |
| Echo: Without changing the meaning of the sentence. |
| Brendan: Well, it doesn’t change the meaning per say, but it does change the emphasis. |
| Echo: True. Consider the sentence 你把我的书弄脏了。 (Nǐ bǎ wǒ de shū nòng zāng le.) |
| Brendan: To make that into a passive sentence, we would say? |
| Echo: 我的书被你弄脏了。 (Wǒ de shū bèi nǐ nòng zāng le.) |
| Brendan: Or “My book was dirtied by you.” |
| Echo: 我的书被你弄脏了。 (Wǒ de shū bèi nǐ nòng zāng le.) |
| Brendan: “My book was made dirty by you.” Let’s hear those two sentences together. |
| Echo:你把我的书弄脏了。我的书被你弄脏了。 (Nǐ bǎ wǒ de shū nòng zāng le. Wǒ de shū bèi nǐ nòng zāng le.) |
| Brendan: Right. Now, there’s a difference in emphasis here. |
| Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.) |
| Brendan: In the first one, the emphasis is on? |
| Echo: 你。 (Nǐ.) |
| Brendan: Right. “YOU got my book dirty.” In the second one, the emphasis is on? |
| Echo: 我的书。 (Wǒ de shū.) |
| Brendan: Right. “MY BOOK was dirtied by you.” Let’s have another example. |
| Echo: 车被他开进了单行道。 (Chē bèi tā kāi jìnle dānxíng dào.) |
| Brendan: “The car was driven onto a one way road by him.” |
| Echo: 车被他开进了单行道。 (Chē bèi tā kāi jìnle dānxíng dào.) |
| Brendan: Now, what if we change that to a “把”字句? (“Bǎ” zìjù?) |
| Echo: 他把车卡进了单行道。 (Tā bǎ chē kǎ jìnle dānxíng dào.) |
| Brendan: Right. “He drove his car onto a one way road.” |
| Echo: Yes, let’s hear those two again.车被他开进了单行道。他把车卡进了单行道。 (Chē bèi tā kāi jìnle dānxíng dào. Tā bǎ chē kǎ jìnle dānxíng dào.) |
| Brendan: So, this is actually a pretty simple point conceptually. You can turn any 把 (Bǎ) sentence into a 被 (Bèi) sentence. And vice versa. |
| Echo: But they have a different emotion. |
| Brendan: And a different emphasis. Now that you are at the Intermediate Level, we’re going to be paying more attention to how a Chinese feels. |
| Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.) |
| Brendan: And speaking of how mandarin feels, there is really no better way to get a sense of natural mandarin, the rhythms of it, the feelings of it, that the shades of meaning, than talking to a native speaker. |
| Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.) |
| Brendan: If you’re interested in getting professional feedback from a native speaker on your Chinese, send us an e-mail at contactus@Chineseclass101.com and we’ll set you up with a free trial with one of our tutors. |
| Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.) |
Outro |
| Brendan: And that does it for today. We hope you enjoyed the lesson. If you have any questions or comments… |
| Echo: You can always write to contactus@Chineseclass101.com |
| Brendan: And we look forward to hearing from you. |
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