Learn about the functions of Chinese adverbs
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Canaan: Hello and welcome back to chineseclass101.com, the fastest, easiest and most enjoyable way to learn Chinese. It’s Canaan here and I am joined here in the studio by |
| Jane: 嗨，大家好。我是 Jane。 (hài , dàjiā hǎo. Wǒ shì Jane.) |
| Canaan: Now today is Absolute Beginner, season 3, lesson 10. Too many Chinese culinary choices. Didn’t we just had a lesson about Chinese food? |
| Jane: Well but that lesson was about to cook food yourself and this lesson is about dining out. |
| Canaan: Right. There is so much to choose from here in Beijing. It’s almost a problem. |
| Jane: So in this lesson, you will learn the many different choices of food and more importantly |
| Canaan: How to find out what the people eating with you really want to eat |
| Jane: In particular the ones you care about. |
| Canaan: Right. Now the conversation takes place at home while a couple is deciding where to go out for dinner. |
| Jane: Of course, since they are a couple, they are speaking in casual Mandarin. |
| Canaan: Now before we take you to the dialogue, we would like to remind you about our online flashcard tool. |
| Jane: Just log on to our online premium learning center where you can find even more great learning tools to help to improve your Chinese. |
| Canaan: Absolutely. Now let’s go to the dialogue. Just listening to the dialogue makes me hungry. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 我想吃烧烤。(Wǒ xiǎng chī shāokǎo.) |
| 没问题。(Méiwèntí.) |
| 不，我想吃烤鸭。(Bù, wǒ xiǎng chī kǎoyā.) |
| 好吧。(Hǎo ba.) |
| 不不，我想吃西餐。(Bù bù, wǒ xiǎng chī xīcān.) |
| 你到底想吃什么?(Nǐ dàodǐ xiǎng chī shénme?) |
| Canaan: And now with the English translation. |
| 我想吃烧烤。(Wǒ xiǎng chī shāokǎo.) |
| I want to have barbecue. |
| 没问题。(Méi wèntí.) |
| No problem. |
| 不，我想吃烤鸭。(Bù, wǒ xiǎng chī kǎoyā.) |
| No, I want to have roast duck. |
| 好吧。(Hǎo ba.) |
| Alright. |
| 不不，我想吃西餐。(Bù bù, wǒ xiǎng chī xīcān.) |
| No, I want to have western food. |
| 你到底想吃什么? (Nǐ dàodǐ xiǎng chī shénme?) |
| What on earth do you want to eat? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Canaan: Just listening to the dialogue makes me hungry. |
| Jane: I know and Peking duck is my favorite Chinese food. |
| Canaan: Oh yeah me too. There are couple of restaurants in Beijing that are particularly famous for their duck, aren’t they? |
| Jane: Yeah if you ever come to China, going to 全聚德 (quán jù dé) the duck restaurant should be the first thing on the list along with climbing the wall. |
| Canaan: Yeah. They even give you a certificate that tells you how many ducks have been eaten before yours. |
| Jane: But don’t worry if it is not to your taste. |
| Canaan: Because we will give you plenty of other food choices in our vocabulary section today. |
| Jane: Let’s take a look. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Jane: 烧烤 (shāokǎo) |
| Canaan: Barbeque. |
| Jane: 烧烤 烧烤 (Shāokǎo shāokǎo) |
| Jane: 没问题 (méiwèntí) |
| Canaan: No problem. |
| Jane: 没问题 没问题 (Méi wèntí méi wèntí) |
| Jane: 烤鸭 (kǎoyā) |
| Canaan: Roast duck. |
| Jane: 烤鸭 烤鸭 (Kǎoyā kǎoyā) |
| Jane: 中餐 (zhōngcān) |
| Canaan: Chinese food. |
| Jane: 中餐 中餐 (Zhōngcān zhōngcān) |
| Jane: 西餐 (xīcān) |
| Canaan: Western food. |
| Jane: 西餐 西餐 (Xīcān xīcān) |
| Jane: 到底 (dàodǐ) |
| Canaan: On earth actually, really. |
| Jane: 到底 到底 (Dàodǐ dàodǐ) |
| Jane: 火锅 (huǒguō) |
| Canaan: Hot pot. |
| Jane: 火锅 火锅 (Huǒguō huǒguō) |
| Jane: 快餐 (kuàicān) |
| Canaan: Fast food. |
| Jane: 快餐 快餐 (Kuàicān kuàicān) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Canaan: Now let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Jane: And the first word is 烤鸭 (kǎoyā) |
| Canaan: Roast duck. |
| Jane: 烤鸭 (kǎoyā) |
| Canaan: So here |
| Jane: 烤 (kǎo) |
| Canaan: Means to roast and |
| Jane: 鸭 (yā) |
| Canaan: Means duck. Like the bird, not the action. Now I know the sample sentence Jane is going to give us. |
| Jane: 我非常喜欢吃烤鸭。(Wǒ fēicháng xǐhuān chī kǎoyā .) |
| Canaan: I very much like to eat roast duck. |
| Jane: 我非常喜欢吃烤鸭。(Wǒ fēicháng xǐhuān chī kǎoyā .) |
| Canaan: And Jane has especially added the degree adverb. |
| Jane: 非常 (fēicháng) |
| Canaan: Very much. |
| Jane: 非常 (fēicháng) |
| Canaan: Which is really another more intense way of saying 很 hěn |
| Jane: 是的。(shì de .) |
| Canaan: Now 烤鸭 (kǎoyā) is really delicious but I think I prefer Chinese hotpot. |
| Jane: 火锅 (huǒguō) |
| Canaan: Hotpot. |
| Jane: 火锅 (huǒguō) |
| Canaan: Can we hear that in a sample? |
| Jane: Canaan 更喜欢火锅。(Canaan gèng xǐhuān huǒguō .) |
| Canaan: Exactly. I prefer hot pot. |
| Jane: 我更喜欢火锅。(Wǒ gèng xǐhuān huǒguō .) But Canaan, have you ad traditional Beijing style 火锅 (huǒguō) |
| Canaan: Oh you mean the one with a tall sort of conical copper pot with the coals underneath it? |
| Jane: 是的。(shì de .) |
| Canaan: Yeah oh yes, I’ve had that. |
| Jane: It’s such a winter choice, isn’t it? |
| Canaan: Oh it’s wonderful. Now there is one more food that can be cooked over an open fire on the table. |
| Jane: 烧烤 (shāokǎo) |
| Canaan: Barbeque. |
| Jane: 烧烤 (shāokǎo) |
| Canaan: And at the moment, it’s Korean barbeque that’s most popular in Beijing at the moment. |
| Jane: 没错儿 (méicuòr) |
| Canaan: Now I wonder if our listeners have noticed the appearance of two particular characters. Second character is the one we’ve just learned. |
| Jane: 烤 (kǎo) |
| Canaan: Which means to roast as in |
| Jane: 烤鸭 (kǎoyā) |
| Canaan: And the first character |
| Jane: 烧 (shāo) |
| Canaan: Which means literally to burn, we learned in lesson 2 of this series as in |
| Jane: 烧饭 (shāofàn) which is preferred way of Southern Chinese people to use to mean to cook. |
| Canaan: Right. So can we have a sample sentence? |
| Jane: 韩国烧烤很好吃。(Hánguó shāokǎo hěn hǎochī .) |
| Canaan: Korean barbeque is really tasty. |
| Jane: 韩国烧烤很好吃。(Hánguó shāokǎo hěn hǎochī .) |
| Canaan: But of course I am from America and I kind of like to eat western food as well. |
| Jane: 西餐 (xīcān) |
| Canaan: Western food. |
| Jane: 西餐 (xīcān) |
| Canaan: Now of course here |
| Jane: 西 (xī) |
| Canaan: Means west and |
| Jane: 餐 (cān) |
| Canaan: Is a formal word meaning meal formalizing compared to |
| Jane: 饭 (fàn) as in 做饭 (zuòfàn) |
| Canaan: Yeah and generally western food in China is pretty expensive. |
| Jane: 在中国，西餐很贵。(zài Zhōngguó , xīcān hěn guì .) |
| Canaan: In China, western food is very expensive. |
| Jane: 在中国，西餐很贵。(zài Zhōngguó , xīcān hěn guì .) |
| Canaan: So most of the time, I eat Chinese food. |
| Jane: 中餐 (zhōngcān) |
| Canaan: Chinese food. |
| Jane: 中餐 (zhōngcān) |
| Canaan: But then at the same time, I know that in China during the last decade especially KFC and McDonalds have just really taken off. |
| Jane: 快餐 (kuàicān) |
| Canaan: Fast food. |
| Jane: 快餐 (kuàicān) |
| Canaan: And this kind of food is particularly attractive to young children. |
| Jane: 很多孩子喜欢吃快餐。(hěn duō háizi xǐhuān chī kuàicān .) |
| Canaan: Many children like to eat fast food. |
| Jane: 很多孩子喜欢吃快餐。(hěn duō háizi xǐhuān chī kuàicān .) |
| Canaan: Now the last word in today’s vocab is a very useful expression. |
| Jane: 没错儿(méicuòr) 没问题 (méiwèntí) |
| Canaan: No problem. |
| Jane: 没问题 (méiwèntí) |
| Canaan: No problem or as you Aussies might say, don’t worry. Don’t worry, mate. Now so far, you’ve learned lot of good choices for food but we’ve promised our listeners to talk to them how to find out what the people eating with you really want to eat and what’s on their mind. |
| Jane: 没问题 (méiwèntí) It’s all in our next section, the grammar point. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Canaan: And let’s go to that now. It’s grammar time. Now today’s grammar section is devoted entirely to one word. |
| Jane: 到底 (dàodǐ) |
| Canaan: Meaning what on earth or straight to the point. |
| Jane: 到底 (dàodǐ) |
| Canaan: What on earth or straight to the point. Now, this is a good word to use if you think that somebody has been beating around the bush with you and you want to get a definite answer out of them. |
| Jane: 你到底想吃什么？(nǐ dàodǐ xiǎng chī shénme ?) |
| Canaan: What on earth do you want to eat. |
| Jane: 你到底想吃什么？(nǐ dàodǐ xiǎng chī shénme ?) |
| Canaan: What on earth do you want to eat? Now, this is, of course, the phrase from our dialogue after the girl kind of changed her mind twice about what food you wanted to eat. This will be the most polite way to get the answer, the real answer out of her. |
| Jane: Oh be nice but most girls are a little bit indecisive. |
| Canaan: And you can say that again. So can we have another example? |
| Jane: 你到底去不去？(nǐ dàodǐ qù bu qù ?) |
| Canaan: Let’s get to the point. Are you going or not? |
| Jane: 你到底去不去？(nǐ dàodǐ qù bu qù ?) |
| Canaan: Yeah. Make up your mind. |
| Jane: 你到底怎么了？(nǐ dàodǐ zěnme le ?) |
| Canaan: So what’s actually wrong with you? |
| Jane: 你到底怎么了？(nǐ dàodǐ zěnme le ?) |
| Canaan: So what’s actually wrong with you. So this is a pretty straightforward pattern 到底 (dàodǐ) added to an interrogative sentence strengthens the tone of the question being asked compared to the same sentence without the word. |
| Jane: 是的。(shì de .)But since today’s grammar point is fairly easy, we are going to teach our listeners a bonus point. |
| Canaan: I always like bonus points. What is it? |
| Jane: 到底 (dàodǐ) Apart from the meaning we talk about above, it can also mean after all. |
| Canaan: As in. |
| Jane: 到底他还是来了。(dàodǐ tā hái shì lái le .) |
| Canaan: He came after all. |
| Jane: 到底他还是来了。(dàodǐ tā hái shì lái le .) |
| Canaan: So the insinuation in this sentence is that we expected this person to come but we weren’t 100% sure yet at the end, he fulfilled our expectations and came. |
| Jane: 是的。(shì de .) 他到底还是个孩子。(tā dàodǐ hái shì ge háizi .) |
| Canaan: He is still a child after all. |
| Jane: 他到底还是个孩子。(tā dàodǐ hái shì ge háizi .) |
| Canaan: He is still a child after all. And notice that these are all declarative sentences. They are not interrogatives, they are not questions like we’d seen before. |
| Jane: 是的。(shì de .) |
| Canaan: So in a declarative sentence 到底(dàodǐ) takes on the meaning that we just described. This after all. |
| Jane: 没错儿 (méicuòr) It’s also kind of further emphasize to what has been said. |
| Canaan: Oh can we have one more sentence? |
| Jane: 他到底还是北京人，喜欢吃烤鸭。(tā dàodǐ hái shì Běijīngrén , xǐhuān chī kǎoyā .) |
| Canaan: After all, he is from Beijing, so he likes to eat roast duck. |
| Jane: 他到底还是北京人，喜欢吃烤鸭。(tā dàodǐ hái shì Běijīngrén , xǐhuān chī kǎoyā .) |
Outro |
| Canaan: All right and I think that’s enough for today’s lesson. |
| Jane: But we will be back on next Monday. |
| Canaan: Yeah and in the meantime if you have any questions, suggestions or comments |
| Jane: Write to us at contactus@chineseclass101.com |
| Canaan: And I promise you that Jane will write you back a long, sweet, informative email. |
| Jane: 没问题。(méiwèntí) |
| Canaan: For now, this is Canaan |
| Jane: And Jane. |
| Canaan: And that’s it from Beijing. See you next time. |
| Jane: 再见。(zàijiàn.) |
Comments
HideHave you tried the Beijing Duck from "Quan Ju De" restaurant in Beijing? If not, you've missed out.
Hello Hilal,
Thank you for your comment.
到底 can be used alone, it doesn't have to be used with 还是.
个 is a measure word, as in 一个孩子, a child, one child. You can learn more about measure words in this lesson:
https://www.chineseclass101.com/lesson/absolute-beginner-questions-answered-by-yinru-13-what-are-the-most-commonly-used-measure-words/
Let us know if you have any questions.
Ngai
Team ChineseClass101.com
Hello,
Thanks for this lesson. It was really helpful. But I have 2 questions.
First of all, does "到底" always used with "还是", if we want to use it as "after all" or can it be used alone?
And my second question is, why do we use "个" in the sentence"他到底是个孩子"? Why is it used and what does it mean?
I would really appreciate if you could answer my questions.
Thanks!
你好 robert groulx！
不用谢。(Bú yòng xiè.) = No need for thanks. You're welcome. 😇
谢谢 (Xièxie) for studying with us, it's great 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 他到底还是北京人，喜欢吃烤鸭。
robert
Hello diverkim,
Thank you for your comment and for pointing out the typo. That is now fixed, thanks to your help.
We are happy that you like our lessons, good luck!
Let us know if you have any questions,
Cheers,
Stan
Team ChineseClass101.com
Hi, diverkim,
Thank you for your correction.
Yes, the pinyin of 邓小平（traditional, 鄧小平） is "Dèng Xiǎo píng".
We will fix it later(line nine).
Cho
Team ChineseClass101.com
Excellent lesson! In pdf lesson notes on pg 6 "cultural insights," 鄧小平 was written as Deng Xiao Pin -- the "g" was missing. I believe the correct spelling should be Deng Xiao Ping, no?
Hi Alexis 亚历克西,
Thank you very much for your understanding :grin:
Olivia
Team ChineseClass101.com
Thanks, Olivia for your answer. Given the number of lessons, I am sure the transcript project is huge and time consuming. It will help us though lots.
Hi Alexis 亚历克西,
Thank you for your comment! We are actually working on the transcripts so please be patient with us :sweat_smile:
And the characters you asked is 非常 (fēicháng) "very".
Olivia
Team ChineseClass101.com
你好！
Good lesson, although I really wish there was a full transcript, because there were some great sample sentences with adverbs that were not present in the sample in the lesson notes such "I very much like to eat roast duck" What are the characters for feicheng？
Hi May,
好的 and 好吧 can both mean "all right". The difference depends on the tone the speaker is using. 好的 could be said more willingly, whereas 好吧 more reluctantly.
Yinru
Team ChineseClass101.com
What's the difference between 好的 and 好吧？
They are both translated as alright
Hi alejandro,
1. I think it's "shi4de", which means yes.
2. In China people use the word 快餐 more. Literarily it means fast food. Usually we think 垃圾食品 is KFC or Mcdonald‘s. We also have some Chinese 快餐, like noodles or baozi. They are 快餐 but not 垃圾食品.
Echo
Team ChineseClass101.com
hello, thanks for today's lesson, i have two questions...
1. What does she say that sounds like "shidao" which is,I guess,a synonym of 没错
2. Is 快餐 seen in a negative way like 垃圾食品 ? , what can you say about that?
thanks
Hi Xuan Thien,
谢谢！
Hi Will,
在大城市很流行。
Echo
Team ChineseClass101.com
在中国西餐很流行吗？Is Western food popular in China?
You are the best. I feel confident learning chinese with you, esp cultural side.