Learn how to ask about a length of time and the length of objects
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 |
| Anthony: Welcome to chineseclass101, the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn Chinese. |
| Echo: 大家好， 我是Echo。 (Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo.) |
| Anthony: And I am Anthony and today, we have our 12th lesson in our second season of our beginner series titled Patiently Waiting in China. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Anthony: So Echo, where are we patiently waiting? |
| Echo: In a line outside of the restaurant. |
| Anthony: Yeah and it’s a really long line. |
| Echo: And the customer is wondering how much longer the wait will be. |
| Anthony: So in today’s lesson, we are going to be going over some great vocabulary if you someday find yourself in the long line such as this one. |
| Echo: Right and we are also going to go over asking how long in the grammar section. |
| Anthony: Before we go to the dialogue, so if you don’t like waiting, come to chineseclass101.com and get your hands on the best material for learning Chinese. It only takes you a few seconds to sign up and you are going to be getting access to lessons that will help improve your Chinese fast. So with that said, let’s go to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 还有多长时间？ (Hái yǒu duō cháng shíjiān?) |
| 半个小时。 (Bàn gè xiǎoshí.) |
| 那么长？ (Nàme cháng?) |
| 差不多半个小时。 (Chàbùduō bàn gè xiǎoshí.) |
| Anthony: One more time, a little bit slower. |
| 还有多长时间？ (Hái yǒu duō cháng shíjiān?) |
| 半个小时。 (Bàn gè xiǎoshí.) |
| 那么长？ (Nàme cháng?) |
| 差不多半个小时。 (Chàbùduō bàn gè xiǎoshí.) |
| [With English translation] |
| Echo: 还有多长时间？ (Hái yǒu duō cháng shíjiān?) |
| Anthony: How much longer? |
| Echo: 半个小时。 (Bàn gè xiǎoshí.) |
| Anthony: Half an hour. |
| Echo: 那么长？ (Nàme cháng?) |
| Anthony: That long. |
| Echo: 差不多半个小时。 (Chàbùduō bàn gè xiǎoshí.) |
| Anthony: Half an hour more or less. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Anthony: So Echo, it didn’t seem like the hostess was too sure about how long the wait really was. |
| Echo: Yeah, it sounded more like the manager was just saying it to make the customer happy. |
| Anthony: Yeah well 30 minutes is a really long time to wait. |
| Echo: But there is one thing in the world that you don’t have to wait for. |
| Anthony: That’s right and it’s our vocabulary section that’s coming up right now. |
| Echo: Right. Let’s get to it. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Anthony: And now the vocabulary section. |
| Echo: 多长 (duōcháng) |
| Anthony: How long. |
| Echo: 多长, 多长. 半 (duōcháng, duōcháng. bàn) |
| Anthony: Half. |
| Echo: 半, 半. 差不多 (bàn, bàn. chàbùduō) |
| Anthony: More or less. |
| Echo: 差不多, 差不多. 等 (chàbùduō, chàbùduō. děng) |
| Anthony: To wait. |
| Echo: 等, 等. 排队 (děng, děng. páiduì) |
| Anthony: To stand in line. |
| Echo: 排队, 排队. 那么 (páiduì, páiduì. nàme) |
| Anthony: So. |
| Echo: 那么，那么. 时间 (nàme, nàme. shíjiān) |
| Anthony: Time. |
| Echo: 时间, 时间. (shíjiān, shíjiān.) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Anthony: So the first word we are going to look at in the vocabulary section is |
| Echo: 多长 (duōcháng) |
| Anthony: How long. |
| Echo: 多长 (duōcháng) |
| Anthony: As in the sentence |
| Echo: 多长时间能到？ (Duōcháng shíjiān néng dào? ) |
| Anthony: How long until we arrive. |
| Echo: 多长时间能到？ (Duōcháng shíjiān néng dào? ) |
| Anthony: Now you can practice asking this sentence while you are in a taxi with the driver. And then you can time him and see how accurate he was on his guess. Hey, I have to look for ways to entertain myself when I am in a taxi. |
| Echo: That sounds very entertaining. |
| Anthony: Yeah no it is. So what’s our next word Echo? |
| Echo: 半 (bàn) |
| Anthony: Half. |
| Echo: 半 (bàn) |
| Anthony: As in |
| Echo: 他学了两个半月。 (Tā xué le liǎng gè bàn yuè.) |
| Anthony: He studied for two and a half months. |
| Echo: 他学了两个半月。 (Tā xué le liǎng gè bàn yuè.) |
| Anthony: So Echo, what’s our next word? |
| Echo: 差不多 (chàbùduō) |
| Anthony: More or less. |
| Echo: 差不多 (chàbùduō) |
| Anthony: And whenever you aren’t sure about anything, you can use this. |
| Echo: Right. 两个小时差不多。 (Liǎng gè xiǎoshí chàbùduō.) |
| Anthony: Two hours more or less. |
| Echo: 两个小时差不多。 (Liǎng gè xiǎoshí chàbùduō.) |
| Anthony: Okay. So this next word I hate doing. |
| Echo: 等 (děng) |
| Anthony: To wait. |
| Echo: 等。我等了一个小时。 (děng. Wǒmen děng le yí gè xiǎoshí.) |
| Anthony: I waited for an hour. |
| Echo: 我等了一个小时。 ( Wǒmen děng le yí gè xiǎoshí.) |
| Anthony: And this usually happens when you are either trying to buy a train ticket or any ticket. |
| Echo: Or a movie ticket. |
| Anthony: Any ticket… |
| Echo: Any kind of tickets in China. |
| Anthony: Yeah you are guaranteed to wait in some sort of line or a massive people at a window. So you know, to make the wait go smoother, people should do this. |
| Echo: 排队 (páiduì) |
| Anthony: To wait in line. |
| Echo: That’s right 排队 (páiduì) |
| Anthony: So if you are at a ticket window, you might hear somebody say this line. |
| Echo: 在那边排队。 (Zài nà biān páiduì.) |
| Anthony: Yes, wait over there. |
| Echo: 在那边排队。 (Zài nà biān páiduì.) |
| Anthony: Okay let’s go into our next word. |
| Echo: 那么 (nàme) |
| Anthony: So |
| Echo: 那么 (nàme) |
| Anthony: And this is really used for emphasis like so many, so much. |
| Echo: Right 那么多 (Nàme duō) |
| Anthony: Yeah so many. |
| Echo: 那么便宜 (Nàme piányì) |
| Anthony: That’s so cheap. |
| Echo: 那么便宜 (Nàme piányì!) |
| Anthony: So anytime that I go into any sort of public space in China, I am thinking in my head, |
| Echo: 那么多人 (Nàme duō rén) |
| Anthony: So many people. |
| Echo: Yeah. 那么多人。 (Nàme duō rén.) Yeah, Chinese people think this way too. |
| Anthony: Ah that’s right. Okay so on to our last word. |
| Echo: 时间 (shíjiān) |
| Anthony: Time. |
| Echo: 时间 (shíjiān) |
| Anthony: And you want to use this word when you are asking an exact time. |
| Echo: 时间到了。 (Shíjiān dào le.) |
| Anthony: Time’s up. |
| Echo: 时间到了。 (Shíjiān dào le.) |
| Anthony: And time is up on our vocabulary section. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Anthony: So let’s move to the grammar. |
| Echo: 好。 (Hǎo.) |
| Anthony: Today’s grammar point focuses on asking how long. |
| Echo: 多长 (duō cháng) |
| Anthony: And depending on the situation, this can also mean how far. |
| Echo: 多长。 (duō cháng.) Right, 多长 (duō cháng) can refer to both length and time. |
| Anthony: So let’s point out the differences when you want to use how long and how far. |
| Echo: When 多长 (duō cháng) is used to ask about the length of time, it’s always followed by the word “time” 时间. (Shíjiān.) So together it’s 多长时间。 (Duō cháng shíjiān.) |
| Anthony: Right. In the dialogue, we heard this sentence. |
| Echo: 还有多长时间？ (Hái yǒu duō cháng shíjiān?) |
| Anthony: How much longer. |
| Echo: 还有多长时间？ (Hái yǒu duō cháng shíjiān?) |
| Anthony: How much time is left. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Anthony: Okay so let’s take a look at a few sample sentences when we are referring to the length of time. |
| Echo: 等多长时间？ (Děng duō cháng shíjiān?) |
| Anthony: How long do I have to wait? |
| Echo: 等多长时间？ (Děng duō cháng shíjiān?) |
| Anthony: Okay and our next one. |
| Echo: 多长时间能到？ (Duō cháng shíjiān néng dào?) |
| Anthony: How long until we get there? |
| Echo: 多长时间能到？ (Duō cháng shíjiān néng dào?) |
| Anthony: Right. Now switching gears, we’ve talked about asking how much time something will take. Now let’s take a look at asking how much distance something is. |
| Echo: Okay. When 多长 (duō cháng) is used to ask about the length of space or an object, it shouldn’t be followed by anything. |
| Anthony: Right. Like always, we are going to give you a few examples to make this clear as a bell. |
| Echo: Like 长城多长？ (Chángchéng duō cháng?) |
| Anthony: How long is the great wall? |
| Echo: Have you asked this question before? |
| Anthony: No I haven’t but I just assumed that it’s very long. |
| Echo: I don’t know the answer. So don’t ask me. 长城多长？ (Chángchéng duō cháng?) |
| Anthony: Right. So our next example. |
| Echo: 六号线多长？ (Liù hào xiàn duō cháng?) |
| Anthony: Yeah subway line 6 is how long. |
| Echo: 六号线多长？ (Liù hào xiàn duō cháng?) |
| Anthony: So our last example is an easy one but you are going to find yourself using it many times. |
| Echo: 这有多长？ (Zhè yǒu duō cháng?) |
| Anthony: How long is it? |
| Echo: 这有多长？ (Zhè yǒu duō cháng?) |
| Anthony: That’s right. So that brings us to the end of our grammar section. So in review, when talking about time. |
| Echo: Yeah we use 多长时间 (Duō cháng shíjiān) |
| Anthony: And when talking about length... |
| Echo: We just put 多长 (duō cháng) at the end of the sentence. |
| Anthony: Exactly. |
| Echo: Simple enough. |
Outro |
| Anthony: It couldn’t be easier. Okay so before we go, we want to tell you about the recording tool that you can find in the premium section at chineseclass101.com. One of the hardest things about learning Chinese is pronunciation. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Anthony: One way to improve this is by using the recording tool, you can record your voice, listen to it and compare it to native speakers. You are going to be making a lot of improvement fast. So with that said, from Beijing, I am Anthony. |
| Echo: 我是Echo。 (Wǒ shì Echo.) |
| Anthony: And we will see you next time. Thanks for listening. |
| Echo: Bye-bye. |
| Anthony: Bye-bye. |
Comments
Hide