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Lesson Transcript

Taiwanese Mandarin Survival Phrases Lesson 24: Bottled Water, Please!
In this lesson, you will learn expressions related to buying bottles of water and asking for no ice.
In Chinese, if you want to ask for bottled water, you can say 請給我一瓶水(Qǐng gěi wǒ yī píng shuǐ). In English, this is “Please give me one bottle of water.”
Let’s break it down by tone:
請(qǐng), is third tone, the falling-rising tone.
給(gěi), is also third tone, the falling-rising tone.
我(wǒ), is again third tone, the falling-rising tone.
一(yī), is first tone, the flat tone.
瓶(píng) is second tone, the rising tone
水(shuǐ) is third tone, the falling-rising tone
Remember that "一"(yī) is the fourth tone before a non-fourth tone word, so “一瓶” is pronounced “yì píng.”
Also note that we had three third tones at the beginning. This means the middle third tone becomes a second, rising tone.
Let’s break it down by meaning:
請(qǐng) means "please."
給(gěi) means "to give."
我(wǒ) means "me" or "I."
一(yī) means "one."
瓶(píng) means "bottle."
水(shuǐ) means "water."
Altogether, we have 請給我一瓶水(Qǐng géi wǒ yì píng shuǐ).
Listen again, one more time, slowly:
[Slow] 請給我一瓶水(Qǐng géi wǒ yì píng shuǐ).
[Normal] 請給我一瓶水(Qǐng géi wǒ yì píng shuǐ).
In Chinese, if you want to ask for two water bottles, you simply change “one," 一(yī), with the number "two" which is 兩(liǎng).
兩(liǎng), meaning "two,” is in third tone, the falling-rising tone. Together “Please give me two bottles of water” is 請給我兩瓶水(Qǐng géi wó liǎng píng shuǐ).
In Chinese, the phrase “no ice please” is 不要冰塊(Bú yào bīng kuài).
Let’s break it down by tone:
不(bù) is in second tone, the rising tone.
要(yào) is in fourth tone, the falling tone.
冰(bīng) is in first tone, the flat tone.
Remember 不(bù) is usually the fourth, falling tone, but because it precedes 要(yào) which is also fourth tone, it changes to second tone.
Let’s break it down by meaning:
不(bù) means "no."
要(yào) means "to want" or "to need"
冰(bīng) means "ice"
塊(kuài) is a word that can mean "pieces" or "chunks.”
Literally, this phrase means "no want ice pieces" but can be translated as "I don’t want ice" or "no ice please.”
Altogether, we have 不要冰塊(Bú yào bīng kuài).
Listen again, one more time, slowly:
[Slow] 不要冰塊(Bú yào bīng kuài).
[Normal] 不要冰塊(Bú yào bīng kuài).

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