Learn about some common measure words
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Canaan: Hello and welcome back to chineseclass101.com where we study modern Chinese in a fun and educational format. |
| Jane: Brush up your Chinese or start learning today. |
| Canaan: So thanks everybody for being here with us for Absolute Beginner series season 3, lesson 22. |
| Jane: Be entertained in China. |
| Canaan: I hope you are not talking about Chinese TV. |
| Jane: Umm no but we do think we are pretty lucky these days considering the number of choices we have for entertainment in China. |
| Canaan: Yeah particularly if you have the bill full [ph] to fit it. I can’t believe how much money they ask for some of those concerts at the National Theater, definitely more than you pay for over where I am from. |
| Jane: But sometimes if you are hesitant, you would end up like the speakers from our dialogue. |
| Canaan: Right, so in this lesson, you are going to learn how to get something quickly before it runs out. |
| Jane: The conversation takes place in front of a ticket box office between a person who sells the tickets and someone who is dying to buy some tickets. |
| Canaan: And while they are strangers, they are speaking in casual Mandarin. |
| Jane: Speaking of casual Mandarin, if you want to improve your casual Mandarin quickly |
| Canaan: You can always check out our 1 on 1 tutoring service where you can find the best highly qualified native Chinese teachers right here on chineseclass101 with personalized lesson plans to suit your level. |
| Jane: And you won’t be disappointed. |
| Canaan: Now let’s go to the dialogue. So I mentioned in the introduction of this lesson that the price tag on entertainment in China tended to be pretty high. Thinking back, I guess that’s only half true. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 还有票吗？(Hái yǒu piào ma?) |
| 有。要几张？(Yǒu. Yào jǐ zhāng?) |
| 三张。(Sān zhāng.) |
| 就剩两张了。(Jiù shèng liǎng zhāng le.) |
| Canaan: And now with the English translation. |
| 还有票吗？(Hái yǒu piào ma?) |
| Are there any more tickets? |
| 有。要几张？(Yǒu. Yào jǐ zhāng?) |
| Yes. How many do you need？ |
| 三张。(Sān zhāng.) |
| Three. |
| 就剩两张了。(就剩两张了。) |
| Only two left. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Jane: Why would you say that? |
| Canaan: Well because while the tickets of the movies in KTV rooms and the big concerts tend to be pretty expensive, you can also find a lot of other entertainment outlets like live bands or traditional music at small or independent venues here in the city. |
| Jane: 是的。(shì de .) And a tip here for you. If you really want to go to a show that you can’t afford, try your luck at the door before it starts. There usually are some one there with the tickets and they are ready to accept what you can offer. |
| Canaan: That being said, we are not supporting the scalping market or anything. |
| Jane: No way. |
| Canaan: Anyway, so today’s vocabulary we’ve organized to make this aspect of your life living in China much easier. |
| Jane: 那我们看一下吧。(nà wǒmen kàn yíxià ba .) |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Jane: 票 (piào) |
| Canaan: Ticket. |
| Jane: 票 票 (Piào piào) |
| Jane: 张 (zhāng) |
| Canaan: Measure word. |
| Jane: 张 张(Zhāng zhāng) |
| Jane: 电影票 (diànyǐngpiào) |
| Canaan: Movie ticket. |
| Jane: 电影票 电影票 (Diànyǐng piào diànyǐng piào) |
| Jane: 火车票 (huǒchēpiào) |
| Canaan: Train ticket. |
| Jane: 火车票 火车票 (Huǒchē piào huǒchē piào) |
| Jane: 飞机票 (fēijīpiào) |
| Canaan: Plane ticket. |
| Jane: 飞机票 飞机票 (Fēijī piào fēijī piào) |
| Jane: 门票 (ménpiào) |
| Canaan: Entry ticket. |
| Jane: 门票 门票 (Ménpiào ménpiào) |
| Jane: 剩 (shèng) |
| Canaan: To have left, to remain. |
| Jane: 剩 剩 (Shèng shèng) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Canaan: All right. We’ve heard a bunch of vocabulary words. Let’s look a little more closely at how to use them. |
| Jane: And the first word is 票 (piào) |
| Canaan: Ticket. |
| Jane: 票 (piào) |
| Canaan: This is a general word for all kinds of tickets, the most common of which is |
| Jane: 电影票 (diànyǐngpiào) |
| Canaan: Movie ticket. |
| Jane: 电影票 (diànyǐngpiào) 星期二的电影票是半价。(Xīngqīèr de diànyǐngpiào shì bànjià .) |
| Canaan: Tuesday’s movie tickets are half price. |
| Jane: 星期二的电影票是半价。(Xīngqīèr de diànyǐngpiào shì bànjià .) |
| Canaan: Now here the word |
| Jane: 半 (bàn) |
| Canaan: Means half. So |
| Jane: 半价 (bànjià) |
| Canaan: Is half price. Now what about tickets for concerts and other things like that. |
| Jane: 门票 (ménpiào) |
| Canaan: Entry ticket. |
| Jane: 门票 (ménpiào) |
| Canaan: Entry ticket, literally door ticket. In fact, you can use this word for tickets used at any place that requires paid entry. |
| Jane: 是的。(shì de.) 你买门票了吗？(nǐ mǎi ménpiào le ma ?) |
| Canaan: Did you buy tickets? |
| Jane: 你买门票了吗？(nǐ mǎi ménpiào le ma ?) |
| Canaan: Now our next word is a rather expensive sort of 票 (piào) |
| Jane: 飞机票 (fēijīpiào) |
| Canaan: Plane ticket. |
| Jane: 飞机票 (fēijīpiào) |
| Canaan: Plane ticket. |
| Jane: 打折的飞机票不太贵。(dǎzhéde fēijīpiào bù tài guì) |
| Canaan: Discounted air tickets aren’t very expensive. |
| Jane: 打折的飞机票不太贵。(dǎzhéde fēijīpiào bù tài guì) |
| Canaan: Discounted air tickets aren’t too expensive and if they are too expensive, you can always go for the other option |
| Jane: 火车票 (huǒchēpiào) |
| Canaan: Train ticket. |
| Jane: 火车票 (huǒchēpiào) |
| Canaan: A thing which during major holidays particularly spring festival are rarer than hen’s teeth, believe me. |
| Jane: 最近火车票不好买。(zuìjìn huǒchēpiào bù hǎo mǎi .) |
| Canaan: It’s been difficult to buy train tickets recently. |
| Jane: 最近火车票不好买。(zuìjìn huǒchēpiào bù hǎo mǎi .) |
| Canaan: It’s become difficult to buy train tickets recently. Every Chinese New Year, train station is the last place you want to be at any point in time. Everybody goes home. |
| Jane: And the airport is becoming more and more like that as well. |
| Canaan: Yeah I heard there was an instance where they were trying to sell standing tickets for airline flights during the spring festival period last year. Now the next word is one from the dialogue. |
| Jane: 剩 (shèng) |
| Canaan: To have left. |
| Jane: 剩 (shèng) |
| Canaan: To have left or to be remaining. |
| Jane: 就剩我一个人了。(jiù shèng Wǒ yí gèrén le .) |
| Canaan: I am the only one left now. |
| Jane: 就剩我一个人了。(jiù shèng Wǒ yí gèrén le .) |
| Canaan: Pay attention to where the word 剩 (shèng) appears in the sentence. It uses a verb and place before the object as opposed to in English where the phrase always goes at the end of the sentence. |
| Jane: And 就 (jiùhere) like we talk about in the previous lesson is to emphasize the limited [0:06:08] of the object. So here it can be replaced by 只 (zhǐ) meaning only. |
| Canaan: Right. Now we have one more piece of vocabulary which we would like to take into our grammar section and we will talk about it there. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Jane: 好吧。(hǎo ba) |
| It’s grammar time. |
| Canaan: So now, what was the word we left out from our vocabulary? |
| Jane: You mean 剩下的词是什么？(shèngxià de cí shì shénme ?) |
| Canaan: That’s right. |
| Jane: 张 (zhāng) Used as measure word here in the dialogue. |
| Canaan: Now today, we are going to talk to you about measure words. Now, this is something that I used to think was unique to the Chinese language but later discovered can be found in other languages as well. For instance, in English, we also use terms like a school of fish or a loaf of bread. These are all measure words. |
| Jane: And the difference is that for Chinese, almost all the nouns have got a matching measure word to go with. So we have hundreds of them. |
| Canaan: Yes, yes you do but don’t worry. Today we are only going to introduce you to a few of the most commonly used ones. Now the first one used for counting people and stone fruit |
| Jane: 个 (gè) as in 一个人，两个梨 (yí ge rén , liǎng ge lí) |
| Canaan: One person, two payers. This is definitely the most common measure word of the entire bunch. It’s sort of like a wildcard measure word. So if you don’t know the specific measure word that’s supposed to go with the noun you are counting, you can always put in 个(gè) in there and it will work just as well. |
| Jane: 是的。(shì de.) 办公室里有三个人。(bàngōngshì lǐ yǒu sān gè rén .) |
| Canaan: There are three people in the office. |
| Jane: 办公室里有三个人。(bàngōngshì lǐ yǒu sān gè rén .) |
| Canaan: Now one thing you need to take notice of when you are referring to someone by formal terms like |
| Jane: 先生 (xiānsheng) |
| Canaan: Mister or |
| Jane: 女士 (nǚshì) |
| Canaan: Miss. These polite titles, then you have to use another measure word. |
| Jane: 位 (wèi) as in 一位先生 两位女士 (yí wèi xiānsheng liǎng wèi nǚshì) |
| Canaan: One gentleman and two ladies. Next for counting animals |
| Jane: 只 (zhī) as in 一只猫 两只狗 (yì zhī māo liǎng zhī gǒu) |
| Canaan: One cat, two dogs. Now, note that for horses, there is another measure word to use. |
| Jane: 匹 (pǐ)一匹马 (yìpǐmǎ) |
| Canaan: Right. Now this is an exception here. The measure word 匹 pǐ is used only for horses and nothing else. |
| Jane: 是的。(shì de .) |
| Canaan: Now the next one is from our dialogue for counting papers or tickets, flat things. |
| Jane: 张 (Zhāng) as in 五张纸 (wǔ Zhāng zhǐ) or 十张票 (shízhāng piào) |
| Canaan: Five pieces of paper, ten tickets. |
| Jane: 我要两张票。(Wǒ yào liǎng Zhāng piào .) |
| Canaan: I want two tickets. |
| Jane: 我要两张票。(Wǒ yào liǎng Zhāng piào .) |
| Canaan: Now this measure word can also be used to count tables. |
| Jane: 办公室里有一张桌子。(bàngōngshì lǐ yǒu yì zhāng zhuōzi .) |
| Canaan: There is one table in the office. |
| Jane: 办公室里有一张桌子。(bàngōngshì lǐ yǒu yì zhāng zhuōzi .) |
| Canaan: Well, how about counting the chairs around the table. |
| Jane: 把bǎ 这把椅子坏了。(zhè bǎ yǐzi huài le .) |
| Canaan: This chair is broken. |
| Jane: 这把椅子坏了。(zhè bǎ yǐzi huài le .) |
| Canaan: Now the word 把bǎ literally means to hold in the hand. That’s its ancient meaning and so this measure word can be used for tools that you can hold in your hands, things like knives, spoons as well as broomsticks and access. |
| Jane: 没错儿 (méicuòr) |
| Canaan: Now the next one is for long and thin objects. |
| Jane: 支 (zhī) as in 一支笔 (yì zhī bǐ) |
| Canaan: One pen but a more colloquial one that people often use instead is |
| Jane: 根 (gēn) |
| Canaan: The measure word is 一根儿笔 (yì gēnér bǐ) which anciently means a root referring to long and thin things. He has only got one pen left. |
| Jane: 他就剩一根儿笔了。(tā jiù shèng yì gēnér bǐ le .) |
| Canaan: Now for clothing, there are two commonly used measure words. For the upper piece, it is |
| Jane: 件 (jiàn) as in 一件西服 (yí jiàn Xīfú) |
| Canaan: One suit. Now for lower pieces of clothing like trousers or skirts |
| Jane: 条 (tiáo) as in 一条裤子 (yì tiáo kùzi) |
| Canaan: A pair of trousers. Now the measure words you just used here 条 (tiáo) is also for long and thin things but usually long and thin wavy things, things that aren’t hard and straight. |
| Jane: 这条裤子太肥了。(zhè tiáo kùzi tài féile .) |
| Canaan: This pair of trousers is too baggy. |
| Jane: 这条裤子太肥了。(zhè tiáo kùzi tài féile .) |
| Canaan: Now speaking of clothing, what about shoes and socks, what are those measure words? |
| Jane: 双(shuāng) 一双鞋 (yì shuāng xié) 两双袜子 (liǎng shuāng wàzi) |
| Canaan: Right 双shuāng is one pair. So one pair of shoes, two pairs of socks. Now I’d like to remind our listeners that many of those things that we refer to as pairs in English don’t match up to references of pairs in Chinese. So for instance, one of the sample sentences we just gave was what we would call a pair of pants, but actually in Chinese, it is known of as |
| Jane: 一条裤子 (yì tiáo kùzi) |
| Canaan: Now as we mentioned before, there are hundreds of these measure words in Chinese. The ones we’ve just introduced however are all critical ones. Measure words that you will hear probably every day. |
Outro |
| Jane: 是的。(shì de .) didn’t get all of the word and the sample sentences? |
| Canaan: Don’t forget to check out our online premium learning center where you can find everything we’ve talked about line by line. |
| Jane: It’s a great tool that you want to have for review. |
| Canaan: Absolutely but for now, this is Canaan. |
| Jane: 我是(Jane.) 在北京。下次见吧。(Wǒ shì Jane. zài Běijīng . xiàcì jiàn ba .) |
| Canaan: See you next time. |
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