Learn how to ask about prices of things
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Victor: 大家好(Dàjiā hǎo)，我是(Wǒ shì) Victor. |
| Amber: Hey, everybody. I'm Amber. Welcome back to ChineseClass101.com. |
| Victor: Today, we have the Absolute Beginner Lessons, Season 1, Lesson 21. |
| Amber: That's right. And we've gone on to new ventures now. |
| Victor: Right. |
| Amber: We were talking about buying, shopping. |
| Victor: Yeah. So you've gotten there already and now you're going to spend some money. |
| Amber: Yep. And today's lesson is entitled "This and That". So obviously, we're going to learn those words. |
| Victor: Yep. |
| Amber: And today's dialogue, I think, will help get you on the road to some good bargains. What do you think, Victor? |
| Victor: Yeah, I think it's very practical, too. You're going to use this a lot. |
| Amber: Yeah, so in this lesson, you will learn how to ask about prices of things. |
| Victor: This conversation takes place in a store. |
| Amber: That's right. And it's between a clerk and a customer. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. But first, we just want to remind everybody they can come to the website and leave comments, come, participate in the community and ask any questions they might have about today's lesson and any other lessons. We encourage you all to come there and say hello even. |
| Victor: Yeah, definitely check it out and ask us whatever questions you may have. |
| Amber: Yeah. Okay. So for now, though, we'll listen to today's dialogue conversation. |
| DIALOGUES |
| Victor: 这个多少钱？(Zhègè duōshǎo qián?) |
| Amber: 十五块钱。(Shíwǔ kuài qián.) |
| Victor: 那个呢？(Nàgè ne?) |
| Amber: 十九块钱。(Shíjiǔ kuài qián.) |
| Victor: 好, 我买这个。(Hǎo, wǒ mǎi zhègè.) |
| Amber: One more time a little slower. |
| Victor: 这个多少钱？(Zhègè duōshǎo qián?) |
| Amber: 十五块钱。(Shíwǔ kuài qián.) |
| Victor: 那个呢？(Nàgè ne?) |
| Amber: 十九块钱。(Shíjiǔ kuài qián.) |
| Victor: 好, 我买这个。(Hǎo, wǒ mǎi zhègè.) |
| Amber: One more time with the English. |
| Victor: 这个多少钱？(Zhègè duōshǎo qián?) |
| Amber: How much is this one? |
| Amber: 十五块钱。(Shíwǔ kuài qián.) |
| Amber: 15 Renminbi. |
| Victor: 那个呢？(Nàgè ne?) |
| Amber: What about that one? |
| Amber: 十九块钱。(Shíjiǔ kuài qián.) |
| Amber: 19 Renminbi. |
| Victor: 好, 我买这个。(Hǎo, wǒ mǎi zhègè.) |
| Amber: Okay, I'll buy this one. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Amber: Okay, well, definitely, definitely some high frequency Chinese here, Victor. Well, at least for girls. |
| Victor: Especially the first-time visitors too, or the first couple times. |
| Amber: There's so much stuff to buy there. Lots of really good deals and unique kind of things you can get in China. |
| Victor: Right. And today, we'll get a little of this and that, which is really going to help you in your shopping adventures. |
| Amber: That's right. Okay. So we'll take a look at the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Victor: And now, the vocab section. |
| Victor: 這(zhè) |
| Amber: This. |
| Victor: 那(nà) |
| Amber: That. |
| Victor: 個(gè) |
| Amber: Measure word. |
| Victor: 多少(duōshǎo) |
| Amber: How much, how many. |
| Victor: 錢(qián) |
| Amber: Money. |
| Victor: 十五(shíwǔ) |
| Amber: 15. |
| Victor: 十九(shíjiǔ) |
| Amber: 19. |
| Victor: 塊(kuài) |
| Amber: Measure word for money. |
| Victor: 呢(ne) |
| Amber: Follow up question particle. |
| Victor: 買(mǎi) |
| Amber: To buy. |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Amber: Okay. Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of these words and phrases. So, we're going to start out by looking at some numbers. Now, remember back in Lesson 17, we learned numbers 1 to 10. Let's do a little review. |
| Victor: Here are the numbers from 1 to 10. 一二三四五六七八九十 (Yī'èrsānsìwǔliùqībājiǔshí) |
| Amber: Good. And now, today, we are going to tackle 11 to 20. And actually numbers in Chinese, Victor, they're pretty easy to learn, I think. |
| Victor: Yeah. |
| Amber: And, you know, just coming from a person who hates math, so everyone out there can rest assured. |
| Victor: Basically, the way Chinese numbers over 10 work is very easy. All you have to do is to say 10 plus the number more than 10 it is. So for example, 11 is simply ‘十一’(Shíyī). |
| Amber: Right, which is 10, 1, basically. |
| Victor: Yeah, that's very logical, right? So for 12, it is just ‘十二’(Shí'èr). |
| Amber: Which is like 10, 2. |
| Victor: Yeah, and so on, right up to 19. |
| Amber: That's right. We heard in our dialogue 十五(Shíwǔ), which is 10, 5 basically, 15. And we also heard 十九(Shíjiǔ). |
| Victor: Which is 19. |
| Amber: Right. |
| Victor: So it's just 10, 9. |
| Amber: Now, last but not the least though, we get to 20. How does 20 go? |
| Victor: And to make 20, you just now say how many tens you have. So, in 20, there are two tens and you just say 二十(Èrshí). |
| Amber: So just flip it around, the 2 comes first. |
| Victor: Yeah. So literally, it means two 10. |
| Amber: Right. And if it was 30, it would be 3, 10, right? |
| Victor: Yes, 三十(Sānshí). |
| Amber: Easy. |
| Victor: Very easy. |
| Amber: Okay. So now that we know some numbers, we also know phrases which is probably more motivating for me to learn than the math reason, learn the numbers. |
| Victor: Right. |
| Amber: But once we know the prices, we can figure out if we want to buy something or not. So we will need the word for to buy in Chinese. And what is that? |
| Victor: That is 买(Mǎi), it’s third tone. |
| Amber: Right. So we're all set for a shopping trip vocabulary wise. Let's look at our grammar now. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Victor: It's grammar time. |
| Amber: Okay. So for grammar today, we're going to talk about a little of this and a little of that, literally. |
| Victor: Yeah. Well, a little of 这个(Zhège) and a little of 那个(Nàgè). |
| Amber: Good. So the word for “this” in Chinese is actually just 这. |
| Victor: Uh-hmm. 这(Zhè) and it's fourth tone. |
| Amber: Now, in our dialogue, because a person is speaking about one specific item, in this case, we will combine the 这(Zhè) with a measure word to indicate basically “this one” specifically. And so the reason we have to do this is because whenever we're talking about a noun, if we want to connect to this or that 这(Zhè) or 那(Nà) to a noun, we have to have a measure word in between. |
| Victor: Yeah, and that is why we heard ‘ 这个多少钱(Zhège duōshǎo qián) ‘ or 那个呢？(Nàgè ne?). |
| Amber: Uh-hmm. And even though we don’t hear the noun in that sentence necessarily, it's implied, we know that they're talking about a thing. |
| Victor: Right. |
| Amber: So word for word, that sentence... |
| Victor: 这个多少钱(Zhège duōshǎo qián) ‘ |
| Amber: Is “this one, how much money.” Basically, how much is this one. |
| Victor: Right. Yes, and remember, we learned a little about measure words in Lesson 10, well, you will learn more about them as you go on in Chinese, but for now, you can just remember that when you're talking about something specific, you can just use 这个(Zhège). And just a side note, there are two ways of pronouncing the word ‘这’(Zhè). You can say either ‘zhe’ or ‘zhei’. |
| Amber: Right. So the word this in Chinese like a few other words has a couple pronunciations possible. |
| Victor: Right. It's kind of a personal preference and sometimes regional, but both are universally understood. |
| Amber: Right. So a person could say ‘zhe个(Gè)’ or ‘zhei个(Gè) both are okay. |
| Victor: Yes. |
| Amber: Okay. So that's this, Victor. What about “that”? |
| Victor: Well, the word for that also has two options to balance things out. You can either say na or nei. |
| Amber: Also fourth tone, both of those. |
| Victor: Right. |
| Amber: So, because in our store, the customer is asking about that one, that thing, we, of course, combine it with the measure word 个(Gè) again. So that was... |
| Victor: 那个(Nàgè). |
| Amber: Right, which is that. Now, the 那个(Nàgè) brings us to another grammar point, but the good news is it's when we learn before that we see re-appearing here in our dialogue. It is the particle ne. |
| Victor: Yes. It was in our 那个(Nàgè) sentence. The customer asks about that one by just saying 那个呢？(Nàgè ne?) |
| Amber: Right. And then remember what this little particle 呢 does. Well, we learned that when someone states something about themselves, for example, and then follows it up with a 你呢？(Nǐ ne?), it means, "And you? What about you?" |
| Victor: Right. So, in this case, 那个呢？(Nàgè ne?), the ne turns the statement into a question. What about that one? |
| Amber: Yeah, just following up. First, we heard about this one and now you just don’t have to say the same thing again. You can just say 那个呢(Nàgè ne) what about that one? Very useful little particle. |
| Victor: Yes. |
| Amber: Okay. Well, that just about does it for today's lesson. Just one last reminder before we go. For Premium members, please make sure that you, please don’t forget that you can access the Premium Feed, Victor, this is powerful web.2, Victor, this is powerful web 2.0 technology. What is it? |
| Victor: Well, they'll find out. |
| Amber: Well, you can get all of our content through iTunes just by clicking the button. And so, that's including the PDFs, review tracks, everything, all through the Premium Feed. |
| Victor: Yeah. To access the Premium Feed or to find out more, you can visit ChineseClass101.com and on the lesson's page, there's a Subscribe to New Basic where Premium Feeds to be graphic. Click on that, scroll down and click Premium Feed, it's that easy. |
| Amber: Yep. So then you can go and try that out, everybody. Everybody who's tech savvy. |
| Victor: Right. |
| Amber: Okay. Well, we're going to have one more lesson to the dialogue before we go, but for now, we will say good-bye, 再见!(Zàijiàn!) |
Outro |
|---|
| Amber:再见!(Zàijiàn!) |
| Victor:再见!(Zàijiàn!) |
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