Learn how to say "If"
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Hi, welcome to ChineseClass101.com. I’m David. |
| Echo: 嗨(Hāi)，大家好(Dàjiā hǎo)，我是(Wǒ shì)Echo. |
| David: And you’re listening to lesson 4 in our first Intermediate series, The Life Aquatic. |
| Echo: 没错(Méi cuò) |
| David: In this lesson, we’ll teach you how to mercilessly slaughter things. |
| Echo: And this conversation takes place in a restaurant |
| David: Didn’t see that coming, did ya? And it’s between an assistant chef and the head chef in the kitchen of the restaurant in specific. |
| Echo: 没错(Méi cuò) |
| Echo: And the speakers are speaking in casual Mandarin, as always. |
| Echo: 对(Duì) |
| David: Now, we’re going to take you to the dialogue in a second, before we do, we want to remind you We’ve got premium Learning Center with tons of great learning materials. |
| Echo: 没错(Méi cuò) |
| David: If you have not already gotten a free account, check that stuff out, do it. It's going to help you learn faster. And now, Echo, the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 师父:就是现在！砍下去！(Shīfu: Jiùshì xiànzài! Kǎn xiàqù!) |
| 徒弟:...等等！如果它死了怎么办？(Túdì:... Děng děng! Rúguǒ tā sǐle zěnme bàn?) |
| 师父:那我们的任务就完成了。快！(Shīfu: Nà wǒmen de rènwù jiù wánchéngle. Kuài!) |
| 徒弟:那它会不会很痛苦？(Túdì: Nà tā huì bù huì hěn tòngkǔ?) |
| 师父:所以你下手要快狠准！(Shīfu: Suǒyǐ nǐ xiàshǒu yào kuài hěn zhǔn!) |
| 徒弟:要是它死了之后回来要我的命怎么办？(Túdì: Yàoshi tā sǐ liǎo zhīhòu huílái yào wǒ de mìng zěnme bàn?) |
| 师父:你要是再不下手，我现在就要你的命！(Shīfu: Nǐ yàoshi zàibu xiàshǒu, wǒ xiànzài jiù yào nǐ de mìng!) |
| 徒弟:那如果...(Túdì: Nà rúguǒ...) |
| 师父:快！只不过是条小鱼！(Shīfu: Kuài! Zhǐ bùguò shì tiáo xiǎo yú!) |
| David: One more time, a bit slower. |
| 师父:就是现在！砍下去！(Shīfu: Jiùshì xiànzài! Kǎn xiàqù!) |
| 徒弟:...等等！如果它死了怎么办？(Túdì:... Děng děng! Rúguǒ tā sǐle zěnme bàn?) |
| 师父:那我们的任务就完成了。快！(Shīfu: Nà wǒmen de rènwù jiù wánchéngle. Kuài!) |
| 徒弟:那它会不会很痛苦？(Túdì: Nà tā huì bù huì hěn tòngkǔ?) |
| 师父:所以你下手要快狠准！(Shīfu: Suǒyǐ nǐ xiàshǒu yào kuài hěn zhǔn!) |
| 徒弟:要是它死了之后回来要我的命怎么办？(Túdì: Yàoshi tā sǐ liǎo zhīhòu huílái yào wǒ de mìng zěnme bàn?) |
| 师父:你要是再不下手，我现在就要你的命！(Shīfu: Nǐ yàoshi zàibu xiàshǒu, wǒ xiànzài jiù yào nǐ de mìng!) |
| 徒弟:那如果...(Túdì: Nà rúguǒ...) |
| 师父:快！只不过是条小鱼！(Shīfu: Kuài! Zhǐ bùguò shì tiáo xiǎo yú!) |
| David: One more time, with English. |
| 师父: 就是现在！砍下去！(Shīfu: Jiùshì xiànzài! Kǎn xiàqù!) |
| David: Now! Cut! |
| 徒弟: ...等等！如果它死了怎么办？(Túdì: ... Děng děng! Rúguǒ tā sǐle zěnme bàn?) |
| David: ...Hold on! What if he dies? |
| 师父: 那我们的任务就完成了。快！(Shīfu: Nà wǒmen de rènwù jiù wánchéngle. Kuài!) |
| David: Then our mission will be complete. Quick! |
| 徒弟: 那它会不会很痛苦？(Túdì: Nà tā huì bù huì hěn tòngkǔ?) |
| David: Will he be in serious pain? |
| 师父: 所以你下手要快狠准！(Shīfu: Suǒyǐ nǐ xiàshǒu yào kuài hěn zhǔn!) |
| David: That's why it needs to be quick, ruthless, and accurate. |
| 徒弟: 要是它死了之后回来要我的命怎么办？(Túdì: Yàoshi tā sǐ liǎo zhīhòu huílái yào wǒ de mìng zěnme bàn?) |
| David: What if he dies and comes back for my life? |
| 师父: 你要是再不下手，我现在就要你的命！(Shīfu: Nǐ yàoshi zàibu xiàshǒu, wǒ xiànzài jiù yào nǐ de mìng!) |
| David: If you don't take his life now, I will take your life. |
| 徒弟: 那如果...(Túdì: Nà rúguǒ...) |
| David: Then what if... |
| 师父: 快！只不过是条小鱼！(Shīfu: Kuài! Zhǐ bùguò shì tiáo xiǎo yú!) |
| David: Quick! It's just a small fish! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: I have a story about this. |
| Echo: What? |
| David: My first night in China, I went with a friend to eat fish. |
| Echo: 然后呢？(然后呢？) |
| David: And they brought a fish over to our table, alive. |
| Echo: 对(Duì)，让你看一下这些鱼是否新鲜的(Ràng nǐ kàn yīxià zhèxiē yú shìfǒu xīnxiān de)，然后有多大。(Ránhòu yǒu duōdà.) |
| David: And of course they wanted us to see it’s high quality, we were actually scared, we didn't know what to make of this thing. It was really big. |
| Echo: 原来你是个胆小鬼。(Yuánlái nǐ shìgè dǎnxiǎoguǐ.) |
| David: So then they hauled it into the kitchen and I guess they they killed, and served it up for us. It tasted really good. |
| Echo: 对(Duì)，因为牠很新鲜。(Yīnwèi tā hěn xīnxiān.) |
| David: But we felt guilty about it. Yeah, you have to be fast, ruthless, and accurate, I guess. |
| Echo: Anyway. |
| David: Anyway, we've got a ton of great vocab all about butchering seafood, so let's get to that now. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| David: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| : The first word we shall see is: |
| Echo: 砍(Kǎn) [natural native speed] |
| David: to cut down |
| Echo: 砍(Kǎn) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 砍(Kǎn) [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Echo: 任务(Rènwù) [natural native speed] |
| David: duty |
| Echo: 任务(Rènwù) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 任务(Rènwù) [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Echo: 完成(Wánchéng) [natural native speed] |
| David: to finish |
| Echo: 完成(Wánchéng) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 完成(Wánchéng) [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Echo: 痛苦(Tòngkǔ) [natural native speed] |
| David: pain |
| Echo: 痛苦(Tòngkǔ) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 痛苦(Tòngkǔ) [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Echo: 狠(Hěn) [natural native speed] |
| David: ruthless |
| Echo: 狠(Hěn) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 狠(Hěn) [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Echo: 准(Zhǔn) [natural native speed] |
| David: accurate |
| Echo: 准(Zhǔn) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 准(Zhǔn) [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Echo: 要命(Yàomìng) [natural native speed] |
| David: to take someone's life |
| Echo: 要命(Yàomìng) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 要命(Yàomìng) [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Echo: 只不过(Zhǐ bùguò) [natural native speed] |
| David: it's only that... |
| Echo: 只不过(Zhǐ bùguò) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 只不过(Zhǐ bùguò) [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| David: Ok let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases in this lesson, the first word is... |
| Echo: 快狠准 (Kuài hěn zhǔn) |
| David: Right, let’s hear that again. |
| Echo: 快狠准 (Kuài hěn zhǔn) |
| David: And this is a weird word because it is three adjectives bundled together. |
| Echo: 对(Duì)，其实这是一个(Qíshí zhè shì yīgè)phrase. |
| David: Yeah, and the first word is “fast” |
| Echo: 快(Kuài) |
| David: The second word is “ruthless” |
| Echo: 狠(Hěn) |
| David: or maybe “savage”, even. |
| Echo: 狠(Hěn) |
| David: and then the last word is “accurate” |
| Echo: 准(Zhǔn) |
| David: And we see this used as either an adverb or more commonly, as an adjective. |
| Echo: 对，没错。(Duì, méi cuò.) |
| David: So in our dialogue, it’s serving as an adverb. |
| Echo: 所以你下手要快狠准。(Suǒyǐ nǐ xiàshǒu yào kuài hěn zhǔn.) |
| David: But it’s more commonly used as an adjective, and here it just means “ruthless, accurate, savage,” all of that. But very very common phrase. Ecco, you got some examples. |
| Echo: 他所有的动作都那么快狠准。(Tā suǒyǒu de dòngzuò dōu nàme kuài hěn zhǔn.) |
| David: All of his movements so quick, ruthless, and accurate. |
| Echo: 对，也许他是一个杀手。(Duì, yěxǔ tā shì yīgè shāshǒu.) |
| David: Yeah, maybe he’s an assassin or a killer. |
| Echo: 他所有的动作都那么快狠准。(Tā suǒyǒu de dòngzuò dōu nàme kuài hěn zhǔn.) |
| David: And there it’s served as an adjective. And next? |
| Echo: 他切菜切得快狠准。(Tā qiē cài qiè dé kuài hěn zhǔn.) |
| David: He cuts food very quickly, accurately, and without remorse. |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: The reality of life in the kitchen. So that's our first vocab point to highlight, it's a bit weird because it's three characters. We don’t get a lot of these in Chinese. |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: The next is this word... |
| Echo: 要命(Yàomìng) |
| David: Not the basketball star. |
| Echo: 要命(Yàomìng) |
| David: Right, 4th tone, 4th tone. And this is actually a tricky one to translate, because you might translate it as “it’s killing me” or “he’s gonna kill me.” |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: But it literally means “to want someone’s life.” So when you translate it literally it sounds a lot worse than it is. |
| Echo: 对。但是这个词为什么tricky(Duì. Dànshì zhège cíì wèishéme tricky)，是因为它可以做动词(Shì yīnwèi tā kěyǐ zuò dòngcí)，像向我们在对话里的那个句子。(Xiàng xiàng wǒmen zài duìhuà li dì nàgè jùzi.) |
| David: Yeah, can we listen to that sentence again? |
| Echo: 要是它死了之后回来要我的命怎么办？(Yàoshi tā sǐ liǎo zhīhòu huílái yào wǒ de mìng zěnme bàn?) |
| David: What would we do if he comes back after he’s dead |
| Echo: 要我的命(Yào wǒ de mìng) |
| David: and wants my life |
| Echo: 这是动词。(Zhè shì dòngcí.) |
| David: Yeah. |
| Echo: 然后呢也可以做形容词(Ránhòu ne yě kěyǐ zuò xíngróngcí)，如果把它两个放在一起。譬如说(Rúguǒ bǎ tā liǎng gè fàng zài yīqǐ. Pìrú shuō)，哎哟！明天就考试了(Āiyō! Míngtiān jiù kǎoshìle)，真要命！(Zhēn yàomìng!) |
| David: Right. Tomorrow I’ve gotta take this test, it’s really... |
| Echo: 要命(Yàomìng) |
| David: “It’s killing me; I can’t stand it.” So, tricky one to translate, but really really colloquial, we run into this one a lot. |
| Echo: 这个是我的口头禅(Zhège shì wǒ de kǒutóuchán)，我经常说这句话。真要命！(Wǒ jīngcháng shuō zhè jù huà. Zhēn yàomìng!) |
| David: So we’ve got a third one, which is also very very colloquial. |
| Echo: 只不过(Zhǐ bùguò) |
| David: And the nice thing about this, is it’s really emotional. It means “it’s only that…” |
| Echo: 只不过(Zhǐ bùguò) |
| David: “it’s only...” |
| Echo: 只不过(Zhǐ bùguò) |
| David: Right, and in our dialogue we heard this one. |
| Echo: 快！只不过是条小鱼！(Kuài! Zhǐ bùguò shì tiáo xiǎo yú!) |
| David: Quickly! It's only a small fish! |
| Echo: 只不过是这么一件小事儿(Zhǐ bùguò shì zhème yī jiàn xiǎoshì er)，你都不能完成。(Nǐ dōu bùnéng wánchéng.) |
| David: You can’t finish this? It’s such a small little thing. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: It’s only a small thing. |
| Echo: 他只不过是一个刚毕业的大学生(Tā zhǐ bùguò shì yīgè gāng bìyè de dàxuéshēng)，你给他的任务太重了。(Nǐ gěi tā de rènwù tài zhòngle.) |
| David: The mission/duty/job you gave him is too heavy, too difficult; he’s only a recent graduate. |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: So the important here is the emotion, it’s like, aaah it’s only... |
| Echo: 只不过(Zhǐ bùguò) |
| David: It’s just that. So, that’s the vocab we want you to take away from us. Again, we had a really common phrase formed by three adjectives. |
| Echo: 快狠准(Kuài hěn zhǔn) |
| David: We had a way to express the idea of “it’s killing me” or “it’s really difficult”. |
| Echo: 要命(Yàomìng) |
| David: And last but not least, we had |
| Echo: 只不过(Zhǐ bùguò) |
| David: “it’s only...” And it’s the emotional there that’s important. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: Okay, so with the vocab section done, let’s move on to grammar. |
| Echo: 好的。(Hǎo de.) |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: The focus of our lesson today is on reviewing a number of different ways to say "if". |
| Echo: If you haven't already learned some, visit our previous lessons. |
| David: Right. In previous lessons we’ve covered these one bye one. Today we’re going to put them in the same place for you. |
| Echo: Good. |
| David: So, let’s get started. As you may remember the easiest and the most intuitive way to say an if sentence is by using the-- |
| Echo: 如果... 就... (rúguǒ... jiù…) pattern. |
| David: Right, that literally means “if”. |
| Echo: 如果... (rúguǒ…) |
| David: “Then” |
| Echo: 就 ( jiù...) |
| David: For example: |
| Echo: 如果你想赢(Rúguǒ nǐ xiǎng yíng)，下手就需要快狠准。(Xiàshǒu jiù xūyào kuài hěn zhǔn.) |
| David: If you want to win, your actions have to be fast, ruthless and accurate. There is some variance of this that we’ll see though. One of the most common variances is to omit-- |
| Echo: 如果(Rúguǒ) |
| David: For instance. |
| Echo: 你跳(Nǐ tiào)，我就跳。(Wǒ jiù tiào.) |
| David: Literally that’s, you jump, I jump. |
| Echo: 你跳(Nǐ tiào)，我就跳。(Wǒ jiù tiào.) |
| David: Right, but it’s really an if sentence, if you jump, then I will jump. |
| Echo: 对(Duì)，但是我们没有「如果」(Dànshì wǒmen méiyǒu `rúguǒ')，只有「就」。(Zhǐyǒu `jiù'.) |
| David: Right. We also see the opposite omission, where people will include. |
| Echo: 如果(Rúguǒ) |
| David: But then they leave out. |
| Echo: 就(Jiù) |
| David: For example: |
| Echo: 如果我怎么吃都不胖(Rúguǒ wǒ zěnme chī dōu bù pàng)，那该多好啊。(Nà gāi duō hǎo a.) |
| David: If I could eat anything without getting fat, that would be fantastic. Let’s have another example. |
| Echo: 如果你想解决问题的话(Rúguǒ nǐ xiǎng jiějué wèntí dehuà)，去找他道歉。(Qù zhǎo tā dàoqiàn.) |
| David: If you want to solve the problem, go to him and apologize. In that sentence as well we had-- |
| Echo: 如果(Rúguǒ) |
| David: But we didn’t have-- |
| Echo: 就(Jiù) |
| David: And one other thing that you may have noticed in that sentence. Listen again. |
| Echo: 如果你想解决问题的话(Rúguǒ nǐ xiǎng jiějué wèntí dehuà)，去找他道歉。(Qù zhǎo tā dàoqiàn.) |
| David: What’s that at the end of the first clause? |
| Echo: 的话(Dehuà) |
| David: This is common in written Chinese, you also run into the spoken Chinese sometimes. It follows the-- |
| Echo: 如果(Rúguǒ) |
| David: Clause. It is just tucked on at the end, and it reminds you that it’s an if construct you’re dealing with. Okay, so that’s the first way, and one of the most intuitive ways of making an if sentence. The second really common way is what? |
| Echo: Is using 要是(Yàoshi) |
| David: Right. In the dialogue we heard this: |
| Echo: 要是它死了之后回来要我的命怎么办(Yàoshi tā sǐ liǎo zhīhòu huílái yào wǒ de mìng zěnme bàn) |
| David: What if it comes back for my life, after it dies. What’s the first word there? |
| Echo: 要是(Yàoshi) |
| David: Now with this pattern, there’s no need for a conjunction starting the second condition. |
| Echo: Like in this sentence, 要是他不肯原谅我(Yàoshi tā bù kěn yuánliàng wǒ)，我该怎么办？(Wǒ gāi zěnme bàn?) |
| David: If he’s not willing to forgive me, what will I do? If you want to, you can still have-- |
| Echo: 就(Jiù) |
| David: But you don’t need it. Let’s have one more example. |
| Echo: 要是你有空(Yàoshi nǐ yǒu kòng)，我们一起去喝杯咖啡吧。(Wǒmen yīqǐ qù hē bēi kāfēi ba.) |
| David: If you have the time, why don’t we have a cup of coffee together? Right? So, those are the most two common ways to make if then statements in Chinese. |
| Echo: 第一个(Dì yī gè)，如果... 就。(Rúguǒ... Jiù.) |
| David: Right. And then two variants where both-- |
| Echo: 如果(Rúguǒ) |
| David: And-- |
| Echo: 就(Jiù) |
| David: Can be omitted. And don’t forget in some sentences we also hear-- |
| Echo: 的话(Dehuà) |
| David: Following first clause. Our second most common way is to use the word-- |
| Echo: 要是(Yàoshi) |
| David: Right, and with that said, that’s just about does it for today. |
Outro |
| David: Now, some of you already know about the most powerful tool on ChineseClass101.com. This is our line by line audio. |
| Echo: 没错(Méi cuò) |
| David: If you want to improve your listening comprehension, go to the premium learning center, check out the line by line audio recordings, listen until every word, and every syllable is clear. |
| Echo: 对(Duì)，一遍一遍的听。(Yībiàn yībiàn de tīng.) |
| David: Right. And you’re going to get it. And you’re going to get it. Your brain is gonna turn this mass of Chinese into words and sentences and phrases that you understand, okay? So check that out. And that’s it for us for today. From Beijing I’m David. |
| Echo: 我是(Wǒ shì) Echo. |
| David: Thanks a lot for listening, and we will see you next week. |
| Echo: 下周见吧(Xià zhōu jiàn ba)，bye bye. |
| David: Take care. 拜拜。(Bàibài.) |
Comments
Hide