Learn how to talk about the food and to say you are full
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 |
| Victor: 大家好(Dàjiā hǎo)，我是(Wǒ shì) Victor. |
| Amber: Hey, everybody, I'm Amber and welcome back to ChineseClass101.com. This is our Absolute Beginner Season 1 Lesson 9. |
| Victor: And the eating continues. |
| Amber: About eating again. Okay. So, this one is about talking about food being delicious. |
| Victor: And you're going to have a lot of that in China. |
| Amber: Yes. And today, we are going to teach you to give your first opinion actually which will be a food critique. |
| Victor: Yeah. What we're going to teach you is going to be some magic words in Chinese. |
| Amber: Uh-hmm. |
| Victor: Everyone will be pleased to hear you say this. |
| Amber: Yes. So in this lesson you will learn how to talk about food and the conversation takes place in a restaurant. |
| Victor: This conversation is between two friends having dinner. |
| Amber: Okay. So let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUES |
| Victor: 好吃吗？(Hǎochī ma?) |
| Amber: 嗯，很好吃。(En, hěn hǎochī.) |
| Victor: 我吃饱了。(Wǒ chī bǎo le.) |
| Amber: 我也吃饱了。(Wǒ yě chī bǎo le.) |
| Amber: One more time, a little slower. |
| Victor: 好吃吗？(Hǎochī ma?) |
| Amber: 嗯，很好吃。(En, hěn hǎochī.) |
| Victor: 我吃饱了。(Wǒ chī bǎo le.) |
| Amber: 我也吃饱了。(Wǒ yě chī bǎo le.) |
| Amber: One more time, with the English. |
| Victor: 好吃吗？(Hǎochī ma?) |
| Amber: Are they delicious? |
| Amber: 嗯，很好吃。(En, hěn hǎochī.) |
| Amber: Yes, very delicious. |
| Victor: 我吃饱了。(Wǒ chī bǎo le.) |
| Amber: I'm full. |
| Amber: 我也吃饱了。(Wǒ yě chī bǎo le.) |
| Amber: I'm full, too. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Victor: Well, these aren't magic words because -- Amber, I'm sure you know this too, like people in China put a lot of emphasis on eating. |
| Amber: It’s true. |
| Victor: If you're a guest to somebody’s house… |
| Amber: Yeah. |
| Victor: …all they want to hear is that you're full and you like the food. |
| Amber: Yeah, and both are important, that it's delicious and that you're full, equally important. |
| Victor: Right. Because they're trying to be a good host. |
| Amber: Yeah. |
| Victor: So nothing is better to their ears than you saying 吃饱了。(Chī bǎole.)… |
| Amber: Yeah. |
| Victor: …which we'll explain later what that means. |
| Amber: Yeah, so you don’t even have to know a lot of Chinese but you can definitely please someone and make them feel very happy using this dialogue. Okay. So let’s take a closer look at the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Victor: And now, the vocab section. |
| Victor: 好吃(hǎochī) |
| Amber: Delicious. |
| Victor: 嗯(en) |
| Amber: aha, hmm.. |
| Victor: 很(hěn) |
| Amber: Very. |
| Victor: 吃饱了(chī bǎo le) |
| Amber: Full of food. |
| Victor: 也(yě) |
| Amber: Also, too. |
| Victor: 好(hǎo) |
| Amber: Good. |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Amber: Okay. Let’s take a closer look at the usage for some of these words and phrases, Victor. |
| Victor: Yeah, so the first one is “delicious.” |
| Amber: Yes. And the all important word for delicious is... |
| Victor: 好吃(hǎochī) |
| Victor: 好吃 / 好(Hào chī/ hǎo) is, I'm sure you know, is a third tone and 吃(Chī) is first tone. |
| Amber: Yes. Literally means good, eat. |
| Victor: Right. So to ask if something is delicious, you can simply say, 好吃吗?(Hào chī ma?) |
| Amber: Right. Remember how easy it is to make a statement into a question in Chinese just add the 吗 the question particle onto the end. |
| Victor: Yep, so it becomes, “Is it delicious?” |
| Amber: Yes. Delicious question mark basically. Okay, 99 times out of 100, of course, the food is going to be delicious, Victor, but maybe, maybe it might taste bad. So just for learning’s sake right now. |
| Victor: Sure. |
| Amber: Let’s learn how to say something, it's not delicious, if it tastes bad, what would we do? |
| Victor: Well, all you need to do is to put the negator word which is 不(Bù) in front of the phrase. So 好吃.(hǎochī.) Delicious is 好吃(hǎochī), and to say not delicious, you simply say, ‘不好吃’(Bù hào chī) |
| Amber: Right. But we hope that you get ‘好吃’(Hào chī) not ‘不好吃’(Bù hào chī). |
| Victor: But it never hurts to know both. |
| Amber: Exactly. So actually, you know, Victor, you've often hear Chinese people say that western food is 不好吃(Bù hào chī), so you might want to learn this phrase too. But then I think they're thinking of like the western food they know is McDonalds, so I mean, I don't blame them. I think it's 好吃(Hào chī), too. |
| Victor: Cultural differences. |
| Amber: Yeah. |
| Victor: So now with the question, is it delicious or not delicious, the person answers with a very common, non-word in Chinese. It's basically, 嗯(en). |
| Amber: Yeah, it's just a little sound, it's very useful, no tone really, just 嗯(en) |
| Victor: Yeah. When you're mom is nagging and you don't want to answer anything, you just 嗯(en) |
| Amber: Yeah, it's kind of like it can mean anything from like yeah to uh-huh or like Uh-hmm. It's kind of like an acknowledgement. Okay, Victor, so let’s give the listeners an example of how to use it. |
| Victor: Sure. |
| Amber: I'll do some -- speaking of your mom, “Mom, can I have some candy?” |
| Victor: 嗯(en) |
| Amber: Okay, what about I'm asking my boyfriend if he's coming tomorrow, “Are you coming tomorrow?” |
| Victor: 嗯(en) while watching football. |
| Amber: Exactly. How about the mom is nagging, “Are you finished?” |
| Victor: 嗯(en) |
| Amber: Just like that. |
| Victor: Yeah, just like that. |
| Amber: 嗯(en), you can use it for anything. |
| Victor: Very simple, very easy to remember. |
| Amber: Okay. So, now, the partner in conversation in our dialogue believes that the food is not only delicious, we will notice, but very delicious. So we're going to learn how to say very in Chinese and how is that, Victor? |
| Victor: To say very, you use ‘很’(hěn)…. 很。(Hěn.),which is third tone, it means very, to put the emphasis, so you can say 很好吃(Hěn hào chī). |
| Amber: Right. So remember this word 很好吃(Hěn hào chī). third tone, it's going to come in very handy. We use it a lot in Chinese. Okay. Now, time to look at some grammar. Okay. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Amber: So we have a little phrase to learn, a little sentence pattern. |
| Victor: And that is how to say, I'm full, as in the full of food, stuffed 吃饱了。(Chī bǎole.) 吃(Chī) is first tone, 饱(Bǎo) is a third tone and 了(Le) is the neutral tone. |
| Amber: Yeah, and literally translated, that means eat, full and then the particle le…tucked on to the end. |
| Victor: Right. |
| Amber: 吃饱了(Chī bǎole) |
| Victor: 吃饱了(Chī bǎole) |
| Amber: So what's going to happen at the Chinese dinner is they're going to keep feeding you, putting food on your plate. The more you eat, the more they'll put on your plate. So… |
| Victor: Yeah, right. |
| Amber: You can use this phrase and they will maybe stop putting food there or maybe not. |
| Victor: Let’s use the magic phrase. |
| Amber: Okay. So next, we also have a review of a very good word to use, to know is the word “also” in Chinese. |
| Victor: And that is 也(Yě) which is a third tone. Yeah, so remember, it's very simple, you just place the word for also right after the subject. In our dialogue we heard here, 我也吃饱了。(Wǒ yě chī bǎole.) |
| Amber: Right. I also am full. |
| Victor: Right. |
| Amber: So how about -- let’s try it, Victor, with some other sentences. What about, I could say, oh, you're a foreigner here in this land... |
| Victor: Yes. |
| Amber: ...Victor, so you're a foreigner but I am also a foreigner. |
| Victor: Okay. |
| Amber: So how would we say that? |
| Victor: Well, the word for “foreigner” is 外国人。外国人。(Wàiguó rén. Wàiguó rén.) |
| Amber: Okay. So if I wanted to say, “You are a foreigner,” what would I say? |
| Victor: You say, ‘你是外国人。’(Nǐ shì wàiguó rén.) |
| Amber: Okay. And then if I want to say, “I am also a foreigner.” |
| Victor: You say, 我也是外国人。(Wǒ yěshì wàiguó rén.) |
| Amber: Right. So the 也(Yě) is the also, it comes right after the subject. |
| Victor: Unlike in English where you can kind of put the also anywhere you want. You can put it in the end, in the beginning, however you want to say it. In Chinese, 也(Yě) usually just comes right after the subject. |
| Amber: Good. It's more set in its ways this Chinese also. Okay. Good lesson. It had some good review and some new stuff, too, to use on your next dinner out. |
| Victor: Yeah. Don't underestimate the power of 吃饱了(Chī bǎole). |
| Amber: Yes. |
| Victor: It gets you to a lot of situations. |
| Amber: Yeah, 吃饱了(Chī bǎole) is very powerful, powerful stuff. |
| Victor: Yeah, and you'd be invited back next time for sure. |
| Amber: Yeah. Okay. So that just about does it for today. And just before we go, we also want to tell the listeners about a really good tool on our website… |
| Victor: Yeah. |
| Amber: …at ChineseClass101.com and that is… |
| Victor: The line by line audio. |
| Amber: Okay. So what we want you guys to do is try out the line-by-line audio and the premium learning center in the -- at the website, ChineseClass101.com and what we have there is we have the dialogue there written line by line with the Chinese audio along with it, so you can go back and review the dialogue, the words, the pronunciation. It will really help you to retain what you learn. |
| Victor: Yes, so comprehension is everything. |
| Amber: Yeah. So that's it for today. You will have it under listen to the dialogue, but for us, we will first say 再见!(Zàijiàn!) |
Outro |
|---|
| Amber:再见!(Zàijiàn!) |
| Victor:再见!(Zàijiàn!) |
Easily master this lesson’s grammar points with in-depth explanations and examples. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Comments
Hide