Learn how to say a variety of different colors
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Frank: Hey, everyone. |
| Echo: Da jia hao! |
| Frank: Welcome back to ChineseClass101.com, Season 1, Lesson 37 in our Beginner series. |
| Echo: 第三十七课。(Dì sānshíqī kè) |
| Frank: I’m your host, Frank Fradella, and I’m joined in the studio, as always, by my colorful co-host, Echo. |
| Echo: 谢谢。我是(Xièxiè. Wǒ shì)Echo. |
| Frank: Now today’s lesson is about colors. |
| Echo: Colors. |
| Frank: We get a pair of roommates trying to decide on the color of walls or maybe shopping for clothing. |
| Echo: Yeah. Sure. They can’t seem to agree, right? |
| Frank: It’s not always the way. Let’s see how this goes down. Let’s listen to the dialogue now. |
| Echo: But before we do… |
| Frank: Oh, before we do, that’s right, we want to remind you that all the supplementary vocab you hear in these lessons can be found in the downloadable PDF transcript that’s part of your premium subscription. |
| Echo: Right. Being able to follow along with us is a great way to re-enforce that vocabulary. |
| Frank: Right you are, Echo. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Frank: So check that out, folks. But for now, on to the dialogue. |
| Echo: Let’s go. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Bunny: 什么颜色好呢？(BUNNY: Shénme yánsè hǎo ne?) |
| 张颖: 红色怎么样？(ZHĀNG YǏNG: Hóngsè zěnmeyàng?) |
| Bunny: 不怎么样。(BUNNY: Bù zěnmeyàng.) |
| 张颖: 那你想要什么颜色？(ZHĀNG YǏNG: Nà nǐ xiǎng yào shénme yánsè?) |
| Bunny: 我想要蓝色。(BUNNY: Wǒ xiǎng yào lánsè.) |
| Frank: One more time, just a bit slower. |
| Bunny: 什么颜色好呢？(BUNNY: Shénme yánsè hǎo ne?) |
| 张颖: 红色怎么样？(ZHĀNG YǏNG: Hóngsè zěnmeyàng?) |
| Bunny: 不怎么样。(BUNNY: Bù zěnmeyàng.) |
| 张颖: 那你想要什么颜色？(ZHĀNG YǏNG: Nà nǐ xiǎng yào shénme yánsè?) |
| Bunny: 我想要蓝色。(BUNNY: Wǒ xiǎng yào lánsè.) |
| Frank: Okay. Great dialogue today. Echo, if you could paint the walls in here, what color would you paint them? |
| Echo: White. |
| Frank: White. Pretty easy. I thought you’d be like the pink family. That was your favorite color. |
| Echo: Or maybe some hearts. |
| Frank: Exactly. Like pink over there. Probably I’m the only person who gets that reference. Somebody call out on the forums if you understand that one. Let’s get on to the line-by-line now. |
| Bunny: 什么颜色好呢？(BUNNY: Shénme yánsè hǎo ne?) |
| Frank: What color is good? |
| 张颖: 红色怎么样？(ZHĀNG YǏNG: Hóngsè zěnmeyàng?) |
| Frank: How about red? |
| Bunny: 不怎么样。(BUNNY: Bù zěnmeyàng.) |
| Frank: Not so great. |
| 张颖: 那你想要什么颜色？(ZHĀNG YǏNG: Nà nǐ xiǎng yào shénme yánsè?) |
| Frank: Then what color do you want? |
| Bunny: 我想要蓝色。(BUNNY: Wǒ xiǎng yào lánsè.) |
| Frank: I want blue. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Echo: I like blue too. |
| Frank: I like blue. But it’s not my favorite color but it’ll do. |
| Echo: Okay. |
| Frank: It’ll just have to do. Let’s get on to the vocab section now. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Male: Now, the vocab section. |
| Echo: 颜色(yánsè) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: Color. |
| Echo: 颜色(yánsè)[slowly - broken down by syllable]. 颜色(yánsè)[natural native speed]. |
| Echo: 红(hóng) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: Red. |
| Echo: 红(hóng)[slowly - broken down by syllable]. 红(hóng)[natural native speed]. |
| Echo: 不怎么样(bù zěnmeyàng) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: Not that good. |
| Echo: 不怎么样(bù zěnmeyàng)[slowly - broken down by syllable]. 不怎么样(bù zěnmeyàng)[natural native speed]. |
| Echo: 那(nà) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: Then. |
| Echo: 那(nà)[slowly - broken down by syllable]. 那(nà)[natural native speed]. |
| Echo: 想要(xiǎng yào) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: To want. |
| Echo: 想要(xiǎng yào)[slowly - broken down by syllable]. 想要(xiǎng yào)[natural native speed]. |
| Echo: 蓝色(lánsè) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: The color blue. |
| Echo: 蓝色(lánsè)[slowly - broken down by syllable]. 蓝色(lánsè)[natural native speed]. |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Frank: Okay. Our vocab section today is devoted to colors. |
| Echo: 颜色。(yánsè.) |
| Frank: Since we’re starting from scratch, let’s start with the primary colors. |
| Echo: 好勒。(Hǎo lēi.) |
| Frank: Echo, what’s the word for “red”. |
| Echo: 紅(hóng) |
| Frank: Blue? |
| Echo: 蓝(Lán) |
| Frank: Yellow? |
| Echo: 黃(huáng) |
| Frank: Say that one more time. |
| Echo: 红。蓝。黄。(Hóng. Lán. Huáng.) |
| Frank: The first thing I know about colors in Chinese is that they’re adjectives. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò) |
| Frank: How do we say “very red”? |
| Echo: 很红。(Hěn hóng.) |
| Frank: Or not blue? |
| Echo: 不蓝。(Bù lán.) |
| Frank: Or very yellow? |
| Echo: 很黄。(Hěn huáng.) |
| Frank: Good. Here are some of the other colors you should know. Black. |
| Echo: 黑 .(Hēi.) |
| Frank: White. |
| Echo: 白。(Bái.) |
| Frank: Green. |
| Echo: 绿。(Lǜ.) |
| Male: 什么颜色好呢？(Shénme yánsè hǎo ne?) |
| Female: 红色怎么样？(Hóngsè zěnmeyàng?) |
| Frank: Now there’s something interesting going on in the dialogue today. |
| Echo: You’re right. 红色怎么样？(Hóngsè zěnme yàng?) We didn’t say 红(hóng), we said 红色(hóngsè). We didn’t 蓝(Lán), we said 蓝色(lánsè)in the dialogue. |
| Frank: So what’s happening here? |
| Echo: Because colors are adjectives and they can modify nouns. |
| Frank: Exactly. We already learned this. To modify a noun, just put the adjective before it. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò) |
| Frank: So red socks is… |
| Echo: 红袜子。(Hóng wàzi.) |
| Frank: Yellow pants is… |
| Echo: 黄裤子。(Huáng kùzi.) |
| Frank: Blue color is… |
| Echo: 蓝色. 色(Lán sè. Sè) means color. |
| Frank: Perfect. Let’s review all of this with some sample sentences. |
| Echo: 好。(Hǎo.) |
| Frank: The red flowers are very red. |
| Echo: 红花很红。(Hóng huā hěn hóng..) |
| Frank: I like black shoes. |
| Echo: 我喜欢黑鞋。(Wǒ xǐhuān hēi xié.) |
| Frank: The water is really blue. |
| Echo: 水真蓝。(Shuǐ zhēn lán.) |
| Frank: This is a traffic light. |
| Echo: 这是红绿灯。(Zhè shì hónglǜdēng.) |
| Frank: Little bit of a curve there, isn’t that? Now the word for traffic light, let’s hear that one more time. |
| Echo: 红绿灯。(Hóng lǜ dēng.) |
| Frank: The red green light. |
| Echo: 没错.(Méi cuò.) Without yellow. |
| Frank: Exactly. I don’t know why they didn’t like the yellow light, but they left it out. |
| Echo: 红绿灯。(Hóng lǜ dēng.) |
| Frank: Last sentence, “I like green tea”. |
| Echo: 我喜欢绿茶。(Wǒ xǐhuān lǜchá.) |
| Frank: Let’s hear that one more time. |
| Echo: 我喜欢绿茶。(Wǒ xǐhuān lǜchá.) |
| Frank: Okay. Speaking of green things, we’re got a green light to head on to the grammar section. Let’s do it. |
Lesson focus |
| Male: It’s grammar time. |
| Frank: Our grammar point is about the conjunction… |
| Echo: 那(nà) |
| Frank: We’ve already learned that this means “that”. |
| Echo: 那。(nà.) |
| Frank: Or “there”. |
| Echo: 那儿。(Nà'er.) |
| Frank: So something strange is going on because in the dialogue, we heard this sentence… |
| Female: 那你想要什么颜色？(Nà nǐ xiǎng yào shénme yánsè?) |
| Frank: Then what color do you want? |
| Echo: Yeah. In this sentence, 那(nà) is a conjunction. |
| Frank: It means “then” or “because of that”. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Frank: Let’s have some more examples. |
| Echo: 那我也去。(Nà wǒ yě qù.) |
| Frank: Then I’ll go too… |
| Echo: 那你吃什么？(Nà nǐ chī shénme?) |
| Frank: Then what will you eat? |
| Echo: 他不要，那我要。(Tā bùyào, nà wǒ yào.) |
| Frank: If he doesn’t want it, then I’ll take it. |
| Echo: 你饿了(Nǐ èle)，那吃吧。(Nà chī ba.) |
| Frank: “If you’re hungry, then eat.” This is really colloquial Chinese. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) It is exactly the way people really speak in China. |
| Frank: It’s a really powerful way to express the idea of conditionality. |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| Frank: The if-then statement. |
| Frank: Okay, Echo, we’re at the end of our grammar section, but before we go, I wanted to clarify a point. The verb “to want”. |
| Echo: 想要。(Xiǎng yào.) |
| Frank: Okay, we heard this another way as well. |
| Echo: 要。(Yào.) |
| Frank: Sounds very similar. What’s the difference between those two? |
| Echo: Both 想要(Xiǎng yào) and 要(Yào) mean “to want”. 想要，要.(Xiǎng yào, yào.) |
| Frank: So there’s no difference. |
| Echo: Not exactly, because 想要案(Xiǎng yào'àn)is actually a bit more polite. |
| Frank: A little softer. |
| Echo: Uh-hmm. |
| Frank: All right. There you have it, folks. I just wanted to clarify that before we close out for the day. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Frank: But we are out of time. It’s time for us to go. But before we leave, we want to remind you to head up to ChineseClass101.com, sign up for that free lifetime account. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Frank: It takes you less than seven seconds. |
| Echo: It’s just that easy. |
| Frank: It’s just that easy. We’ll see you there. But for now, from Beijing, I’m Frank Fradella. |
| Echo: 我是(Wǒ shì)Echo |
| Frank: From our studios here, we’ll see you next time. |
| Echo: 下次见。(Xià cì jiàn.) |
| Frank: 再见。(Zàijiàn.) |
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