INTRODUCTION |
Echo: Hi, I’m Echo. |
David: I’m David, and welcome back to ChineseClass101.com. This is Lesson 25 in our Absolute Beginner Series, Getting a Train Ticket in China. |
Echo: Right. |
David: So today, we’ve got a dialogue which involves buying a train ticket at the train station. |
Echo: Right. And you will also learn about times of day. |
David: Right. We’ve got a conversation that takes place at the ticket booth between a ticket seller and a traveler. |
Echo: Right. And they are speaking casual Mandarin. |
David: Right, as always. Now, before we get to the dialogue, we want to remind you, if you’re listening on an iPod... |
Echo: Or an iTouch or iPhone... |
David: You can click on the center button of the iPod or just tap the screen of the iTouch or iPhone and you can see the lesson notes while you listen. |
Echo: Right. Read along while you listen. |
David: Give it a shot. |
Echo: Right. |
David: Let’s go on to the dialogue. |
DIALOGUES |
David: 我要一张到北京的票。(Wǒ yào yī zhāng dào Běijīng de piào.) |
Echo: 今天的吗?(Jīntiān de ma?) |
David: 对。(Duì.) |
Echo: 你要上午11点的,下午3点的,还是晚上7点的?(Nǐ yào shàngwǔ shíyī diǎn de, xiàwǔ sān diǎn de, háishì wǎnshàng qī diǎn de?) |
David: 7点的。(Qī diǎn de.) |
David: One more time, a bit slower. |
David: 我要一张到北京的票。(Wǒ yào yī zhāng dào Běijīng de piào.) |
Echo: 今天的吗?(Jīntiān de ma?) |
David: 对。(Duì.) |
Echo: 你要上午11点的,下午3点的,还是晚上7点的?(Nǐ yào shàngwǔ shíyī diǎn de, xiàwǔ sān diǎn de, háishì wǎnshàng qī diǎn de?) |
David: 7点的。(Qī diǎn de.) |
David: And now, with the English translation. |
Echo: 我要一张到北京的票。(Wǒ yào yī zhāng dào Běijīng de piào.) |
David: I want one ticket to Beijing. |
Echo: 今天的吗?(Jīntiān de ma?) |
David: For today? |
Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
David: Yes. |
Echo: 你要上午11点的,下午3点的,还是晚上7点的?(Nǐ yào shàngwǔ shíyī diǎn de, xiàwǔ sān diǎn de, háishì wǎnshàng qī diǎn de?) |
David: Do you want the one at 11:00 in the morning, 3:00 in the afternoon or 7:00 in the evening? |
Echo: 7点的。(Qī diǎn de.) |
David: The 7 o’clock one. |
POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
David: I love taking the train in China. |
Echo: Yeah. |
David: But some of them, they take a while. I was once on the hard seater to Inner Mongolia which is only about eight hours and that was, that was not a lot of fun. |
Echo: Yeah. But it’s a good way like to meet a lot of people there. |
David: That’s true. If you do take the train, short distances, you are going to meet a lot of Chinese people who are going to be really happy to talk to you. |
Echo: In Chinese. |
David: In Chinese. Anyway, we’ve got a lot of vocabulary here for buying tickets and telling times. |
Echo: Right. |
David: So let’s get to that now. |
Echo: Okay. |
VOCAB LIST |
David: And now, the vocab section. |
Echo: 要(yào) |
David: To want. |
Echo: 張(zhāng) |
David: Measure word. |
Echo: 到(dào) |
David: To. |
Echo: 北京(Běijīng) |
David: Beijing. |
Echo: 的(de) |
David: A possessive or subordinating particle. |
Echo: 票(piào) |
David: Ticket. |
Echo: 今天(jīntiān) |
David: Today. |
Echo: 上午(shàngwǔ) |
David: Morning. |
Echo: 下午(xiàwǔ) |
David: Afternoon. |
Echo: 晚上(wǎnshàng) |
David: Evening. |
Echo: 還是(háishì) |
David: Or. |
KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
David: Okay. So today, we have a lot of time words for you. |
Echo: Right. Schedule, schedule, schedule. |
David: Right. We’re going to start out with possibly with the most important one. |
Echo: Yeah. |
David: And that’s the word for today. |
Echo: 今天(jīntiān). |
David: Which is really important to know if you’re train is leaving today. |
Echo: 今天(jīntiān). |
David: Assuming it is, you also want to find out what time of the day. |
Echo: Definitely. |
David: Right. So the word we heard from morning was... |
Echo: 上午(shàngwǔ). |
David: Let’s hear that again, “Morning.” |
Echo: 上午(shàngwǔ). |
David: We can put these together and get, “Today, morning.” |
Echo: 今天上午(Jīntiān shàngwǔ) |
David: This morning. |
Echo: 今天上午(Jīntiān shàngwǔ) |
David: So this morning is literally “today morning.” |
Echo: 今天上午(Jīntiān shàngwǔ) |
David: So now you should know how to say, “This afternoon.” |
Echo: 今天下午(Jīntiān xiàwǔ) |
David: Right. That’s literally “today afternoon.” |
Echo: 今天下午 / 上午 / 下午(Jīntiān xiàwǔ/ shàngwǔ/ xiàwǔ) |
David: Technically 上午(Shàngwǔ) is late morning. |
Echo: Yeah, a bit... |
David: It starts maybe about 10 o’clock. |
Echo: That’s true. |
David: So when you just get out of bed and when you have breakfast... |
Echo: We call that, 早上(Zǎoshang) |
David: Right. |
Echo: 早上(Zǎoshang) |
David: So you could say, “This morning.” |
Echo: 今天早上(Jīntiān zǎoshang) |
David: Right, which would be sometime today before about 10 o’clock. |
Echo: Right. 今天早上(Jīntiān zǎoshang) |
David: In China, one common say people say good morning is to say... |
Echo: 早(Zǎo) |
David: Which is a short form of... |
Echo: 早上好(Zǎoshang hǎo) |
David: One other really useful word is the word for evening. |
Echo: 晚上(Wǎnshàng) |
David: As in the phrase, “See you in the evening.” |
Echo: 晚上见!(Wǎnshàng jiàn!) |
David: Or, “This evening.” |
Echo: 今天晚上(Jīntiān wǎnshàng) |
David: Okay. So by now we’ve got four times of day, “Early morning.” |
Echo: 早上(Zǎoshang) |
David: Late morning. |
Echo: 上午(Shàngwǔ) |
David: And then afternoon. |
Echo: 下午(Xiàwǔ) |
David: And finally, we have evening. |
Echo: 晚上(Wǎnshàng) |
David: As is, “Good evening.” |
Echo: 晚上好(Wǎnshàng hǎo) |
David: Or, “See you this evening.” |
Echo: 晚上见(Wǎnshàng jiàn) |
David: Right. Now, we know the times of day, let’s move on to the grammar section where we’re going to use the stuff. |
GRAMMAR POINT |
Echo: All right. We’ve got a great grammar section today. |
David: We do. It’s all... |
Echo: What it’s about? |
David: It’s all about the times that we ran into in the dialogue. |
Echo: Yeah. |
David: Because they’re not just times, there’s something funky going on. But before we look at that, let’s take a look at this sentence from the dialogue. |
Echo: 我要一张到北京的票。(Wǒ yào yī zhāng dào běijīng de piào.) |
David: Now, as we remember... |
Echo: 要(Yào) |
David: Means, “to want.” |
Echo: Uh-hmm, like 我要水(Wǒ yào shuǐ). |
David: “I want water” and in the summer, you will definitely be saying that. |
Echo: Yeah. |
David: But in this case, he wants one ticket to Beijing. |
Echo: 一张到北京的票(Yī zhāng dào běijīng de piào) |
David: Okay. Getting the difficult thing out of the way, we’ve got a measure word in there which is for ticket. |
Echo: 张(Zhāng) |
David: It’s anything that’s flat and square... |
Echo: Yeah. |
David: Ticket is like a piece of paper. |
Echo: Yeah. 一张票(Yī zhāng piào) |
David: But in this case, it’s not any ticket, it’s a ticket to Beijing. |
Echo: 到北京的票 ... 一张到北京的票(Dào běijīng de piào... Yī zhāng dào běijīng de piào) |
David: Right. So what we want to focus on today is this particle 的(De). |
Echo: Yeah. |
David: Now, technically, this is called the subordinating particle which is a pretty nasty way of saying, it makes the thing that comes after, belong to or subordinate of the thing that comes before. |
Echo: Yes. So this 票 is 到北京的(Piào is dào běijīng de). |
David: Right. The ticket is subordinate to, to Beijing. It belongs to the category of things that is to Beijing. |
Echo: Right. And we’ll see this again later in the dialogue. |
David: Right. When they say, “What times the tickets are?” |
Echo: "上午11点的(Shàngwǔ 11 diǎn de),下午3点的(Xiàwǔ 3 diǎn de),还是晚上7点的(Háishì wǎnshàng 7 diǎn de)" |
David: If we cut out that last 的(De) we could see the actual times of the tickets. |
Echo: 上午11点(Shàngwǔ 11 diǎn) |
David: 11 o’clock in the morning. |
Echo: 下午3点(Xiàwǔ 3 diǎn) |
David: 3:00 in the afternoon. |
Echo: 晚上7点(Wǎnshàng 7 diǎn) |
David: 7:00 in the evening. |
Echo: Right. |
David: Now, this stuff you guys should already know because we covered basic time in Lesson 5. |
Echo: But in the dialogue, that actually said, 上午11点的(Shàngwǔ 11 diǎn de), 下午3点的(Xiàwǔ 3 diǎn de), 晚上7点的...(Wǎnshàng 7 diǎn de...) |
David: Right. Something is up. This is Lesson 25, so we’re getting tricky here. |
Echo: Right. |
David: We want to tell you what that 的(De) is doing because you’re going to run into this all the time. |
Echo: Right. |
David: Now, it’s the same thing we’re seeing here that we saw on the first example we talked about. |
Echo: Right, so it should be 上午11点的票(Shàngwǔ 11 diǎn de piào). 下午3点的票(Xiàwǔ 3 diǎn de piào) and 晚上7点的票(Wǎnshàng 7 diǎn de piào) |
David: Right. We’ve still got the subordinating relationship. All we’ve done is we’ve left out the word for ticket. |
Echo: Right. |
David: Because we already know we’re talking about a ticket. So, when you run into this, when you’ve got a 的(De) at the end of something like that... |
Echo: Yeah. |
David: It’s a clue that the Chinese speaker is leaving something out. |
Echo: Right. So like object of 的(De) we already know. |
David: Yeah. It becomes a noun or a noun phrase. |
Echo: 上午11点的(Shàngwǔ 11 diǎn de) |
David: The one at 11:00 AM. |
Echo: 下午3点的(Xiàwǔ 3 diǎn de) |
David: The one at 3:00 PM. Now, what that one is, it’s up to you to figure out from context. |
Echo: Right. |
David: Okay? So, this is a bit tricky. Now, you know what’s going on. You guys should be able to master it. |
David: With that though, that about does it for us for today. Remember, before you go, you can leave us a comment on this lesson. |
Echo: Right. If you have any questions or feedback... |
David: Right, please just leave us a comment. It’s easy to do, come to... |
Echo: ChineseClass101.com. |
David: Click on comments... |
Echo: Right. |
David: Enter your comment, a name and that’s it. Okay? From Beijing, I’m David. |
Echo: I’m Echo. |
David: Thanks a lot for listening and we will see you next time. |
Outro
|
David:再见!(Zàijiàn!) |
Echo:再见!(Zàijiàn!) |
Comments
HideHave you ever taken a "hard seater" while in China? How about a standing room only ticket?
Hello Joe,
Thank you for your feedback, we work with different hosts, we'll certainly take into account all the feedback from our learners.
If you have any questions, please let us know.
Ngai
Team ChineseClass101.com
I prefer Amber and Peter over this two having the podcast. Clearly, the narrator now does not speak Mandarin because he never states any word in Mandarin. The female narrator I’m having a hard time understanding what she says. When Amber and Peter are having the dialogue, it sounds like they’re having an actual talk but the two narrow readers now it sounds like it’s a script.
你好 子晴,
Thank you for your comment, we're glad to hear that! 👍
If you have any questions, please let us know.
Ngai
Team ChineseClass101.com
Good explanation of 的, thank you 😄
你好 美華,
Thank you for your comment. The meaning of 要 in a sentence always depends on the context.
You're right, 我要学习 can be translated as "I want to study" or "I have to study."
e.g. 明年我去中国工作,我要学习中文。I'm going to work in China next year, I have to study Chinese.
我喜欢汉字, 我要学习中文。I like Chinese characters, I want to study Chinese.
If you have any questions, please let us know.
Ngai
Team ChineseClass101.com
In Lesson 24 要 yào means "to be going to, have to" The example sentence was:
我要去北京。
I HAVE to go to Beijing.
But as we see in this lesson 要 yào also means "to want."
我要一张到北京的票。
I WANT one ticket to Beijing.
There's a slight difference in meaning to me if you use the meaning "have to" or "to want." The first denotes an urgency, perhaps it's by command or order (by a boss or family member) that you need to go but you don't necessarily want to go. Whereas the second denotes your own desire to want to go. So I how do I tell if 要 means "have to" or "to want" in a sentence?
For example
我要学习。Could translate as "I want to study" or "I have to study." The first implies a desire to study whereas the second implies not wanting to study but there being a necessity to.
Hello Rabah,
Thank you for your comment. Right, both 还是 (haíshì) and 或者 (huòzhĕ) mean "or". 还是 (haíshì) is used in questions, while 或者 (huòzhĕ) is used in statements.
You may check out this video for more details:
https://www.chineseclass101.com/lesson/chinese-grammar-made-easy-1-two-words-meaning-or-%E8%BF%98%E6%98%AF-vs-%E6%88%96%E8%80%85/
If you have any questions, please let us know.
Ngai
Team ChineseClass101.com
In the last lesson we said that the word "or" is " huòzhě " but in this one we used "háishì", are they synonyms?
Hello dinalicd,
We are sorry to hear that the function doesn't work well on your end.
I checked it, and I could add the selected words successfully.
Did you click the checkboxes next to the words before the [Add to Word Bank] button?
If you did, and nothing changed, it’d be great if you could send us an email at contactus@ChineseClass101.com so that we can take a look at the issue closely.
Sincerely,
Lena
Team ChineseClass101.com
I'm unable to add the vocab section to the word bank... Why is that?
你好 antonbabkin,
Thank you for your comment. The word for "here" is 这里 zhèlǐ, you will also hear people just say 这儿 zhèr.
You can say: 我在here学习多一下。=> 我在这里多学习一下。
我想知道怎么写中文here。=> 我想知道怎么用中文写here。
If you have any questions, please let us know.
Ngai Lam
Team ChineseClass101.com
您好!😄
我在here学习多一下。
我想知道怎么写中文here。
谢谢您的帮助。
再见。
Hello Lakshmi,
Thank you for your comment. Yes you're right, we say liǎng zhāng piào (two tickets, we don't use èr here), sān zhāng piào (three tickets), and so on. Simply add zhāng after the number.
For the difference between 二 èr and 两 liǎng, check out this video:
https://www.chineseclass101.com/lesson/absolute-beginner-questions-answered-by-yinru-14-saying-two-is-it-%E4%BA%8C-er-or-%E4%B8%A4-li%C7%8Eng/
For the difference between 还是 háishì and 或者 huòzhě, this lesson gives a detailed explanation and examples:
https://www.chineseclass101.com/lesson/chinese-grammar-made-easy-1-two-words-meaning-or-%E8%BF%98%E6%98%AF-vs-%E6%88%96%E8%80%85/
Hope it helps, let us know if you have any questions.
Ngai Lam
Team ChineseClass101.com
I've two doubts : (I'm using my desktop hence can't use the tones on the words)
1. The usage of zhang (measure word) - How do we say the sentence if we want more than one ticket? will we say yao er zhang or san zhang?
2. The usage of haishi and huozhe and other words for or - Could you give an example on what context these different or are used and can we interchangeably use them for any sentence or are they used in specific conditions only?
你好 robert groulx!
谢谢 for taking the time to leave us a comment. 😇
We are very happy to have you here.
Let us know if you have any questions.
Kind regards,
雷文特 (Levente)
Team ChineseClass101.com
thank you for the lesson transcript
favorite phrase is 我要一张到北京的票
robert
No 嗚啊
No 沒有
你好 Tara,
Thanks for posting.
Ok :wink: If you have any further doubts, please contact us.
Cristiane
Team Chineseclass101.com
Nevermind about my last comment, I see someone already answered that question