Learn about using the Chinese pronoun "oneself," along with some other pronouns
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| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Welcome to chineseclass101.com. I am David. |
| Echo: Hi! 大家好，我是Echo.(Hi! Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo.) |
| DAVID: And here we are with absolute beginner season 2, lesson 23. |
| ECHO: High-tech China. |
| DAVID: Right. This is the one about the high-tech toys you can buy here. Watches and cell phones and all of the stuff and we’ve got a dialogue for you that takes place at home actually. |
| ECHO: Between a husband and wife. |
| DAVID: Right but they are talking about electronics and they are talking about going and buying them. |
| ECHO: Yes. |
| DAVID: Because the wife wants a new cell phone. Echo is nodding, she also wants a new cell phone. |
| ECHO: Yes because my cell phone is going to break. I guess it’s very slim. |
| DAVID: It’s on the verge of falling apart. |
| ECHO: Yes. |
| DAVID: So we’ve got that dialogue for you. Before we take you to it, we want to remind you that learning a new language is about learning a lot of new words and there is no better way to make these words stick than come to chineseclass101.com and check out the flash cards in our learning center. |
| ECHO: 没错儿。(Méi cuò ér.) |
| DAVID: Okay. It only takes a second and it really helps drive the stuff in. That being said though, let’s get to our dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| F: 老公，我要新手机。(Lǎogōng, wǒ yào xīn shǒujī!) |
| M: 你的手机很新。(Nǐ de shǒujī hěn xīn.) |
| F: 但是不好看。(Dànshì bù hǎokàn.) |
| M: 我没钱，你自己买吧。(Wǒ méi qián, nǐ zìjǐ mǎi ba.) |
| David: One more time, a bit slower. |
| F: 老公，我要新手机。 (Lǎogōng, wǒ yào xīn shǒujī!) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| M: 你的手机很新。(Nǐ de shǒujī hěn xīn.) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| F: 但是不好看。(Dànshì bù hǎokàn.) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| M: 我没钱，你自己买吧。(Wǒ méi qián, nǐ zìjǐ mǎi ba.) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| David: And now with the English. |
| ECHO: 老公，我要新手机。(Lǎogōng, wǒ yào xīn shǒujī!) |
| DAVID: Husband, I want a new cell phone. |
| ECHO: 你的手机很新。(Nǐ de shǒujī hěn xīn.) |
| DAVID: Your cell phone is really new. |
| ECHO: 但是不好看。(Dànshì bù hǎokàn.) |
| DAVID: But it’s ugly. |
| ECHO: 我没钱，你自己买吧。(Wǒ méi qián, nǐ zìjǐ mǎi ba.) |
| DAVID: I don’t have any money, buy one yourself. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| DAVID: Seriously, buy one yourself. |
| ECHO: No.. it’s Chinese tradition. |
| DAVID: She has got a job, he has got a job. She can find… |
| ECHO: its Chinese tradition. |
| DAVID: Well it’s a Chinese tradition that men have to buy women cell phones. |
| ECHO: If they are in a relationship yes. |
| DAVID: How long has this tradition been going on? |
| ECHO: I don’t know, since I was 4. |
| DAVID: Anyway regardless of these Chinese traditions, our vocab section today is all about high-tech toys. So we’ve got a bunch for you. We are going to take you to them now. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| David: And now the vocab section. |
| ECHO: 手机。(shǒujī) [natural native speed] |
| DAVID: Cell phone. |
| ECHO: 手机。(shǒujī) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| ECHO: 手机。(shǒujī) [natural native speed] |
| ECHO: 相机。(xiàngjī) [natural native speed] |
| DAVID: Camera. |
| ECHO: 相机。(xiàngjī) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| ECHO: 相机。(xiàngjī) [natural native speed] |
| ECHO: 手表。(shǒubiǎo) [natural native speed] |
| DAVID: Watch. |
| ECHO: 手表。(shǒubiǎo) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| ECHO: 手表。(shǒubiǎo) [natural native speed] |
| ECHO: 电脑。(Diànnǎo.) [natural native speed] |
| DAVID: Computer |
| ECHO: 电脑。(Diànnǎo.) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| ECHO: 电脑。(Diànnǎo.) [natural native speed] |
| ECHO: 笔记本儿。 (Bǐjìběn er) [natural native speed] |
| DAVID: Laptop. |
| ECHO: 笔记本儿。(Bǐjìběn er) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| ECHO: 笔记本儿。(Bǐjìběn er) [natural native speed] |
| ECHO: 音箱。(yīnxiāng) [natural native speed] |
| DAVID: Speakers |
| ECHO: 音箱。(yīnxiāng) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| ECHO: 音箱。(yīnxiāng) [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| DAVID: Let’s have a closer look at some of these words and phrases. Our first word is |
| ECHO: 手机。(Shǒujī.) |
| DAVID: Cell phone. |
| ECHO: 手机。(Shǒujī.) |
| DAVID: And apparently it’s a tradition now that men have to buy women cell phones. |
| ECHO: Yes if they are in a relationship yes. |
| DAVID: Okay so if you are in a relationship with someone, you can say, I bought you a cell phone. |
| ECHO: 我给你买了一个手机。 (Wǒ gěi nǐ mǎile yīgè shǒujī.) |
| DAVID: So if you are in a relationship with someone, you can buy them a cell phone and present it to them. |
| ECHO: Yes. |
| DAVID: Here is your cell phone. |
| ECHO: 你的手机。(Nǐ de shǒujī.) |
| DAVID: That’s your cell phone. |
| ECHO: Yes. |
| DAVID: Yeah so you’ve got to be in the act of giving it. |
| ECHO: 你的手机。(Nǐ de shǒujī.) |
| DAVID: Right. |
| ECHO: And your girlfriend will be really happy and think that oh… |
| DAVID: Well it depends on the cell phone. |
| ECHO: Oh yeah. |
| DAVID: What you don’t want to tell them is your cell phone is really inexpensive. |
| ECHO: 你的手机不贵。 (Nǐ de shǒujī bù guì.) |
| DAVID: Your cell phone is not expensive. |
| ECHO: 你的手机不贵 (Nǐ de shǒujī bù guì.) or 你的手机很便宜。(Nǐ de shǒujī hěn piányí.) |
| DAVID: Yeah tell them it’s a vintage instead, the vintage Nokia series. Our next word is of course camera. |
| ECHO: 相机。(xiàngjī) |
| DAVID: Camera. |
| ECHO: 相机。(xiàngjī) |
| DAVID: And this covers both digital and non-digital variants. |
| ECHO: Right. |
| DAVID: As far as we know, there is no tradition. |
| ECHO: There is a tradition. I am sorry to tell you this. |
| DAVID: What, you just need to buy a camera for people too? |
| ECHO: You can buy camera too if your girlfriend loves to like taking pictures yes. It’s more and more like a tradition. |
| DAVID: This is just getting harder and harder. So you can present your significant other with a camera and say, your camera. |
| ECHO: 你的相机。(Nǐ de xiàngjī.) |
| DAVID: And you are not going to want to tell them of course |
| ECHO: 你的相机很便宜。(Nǐ de xiàngjī hěn piányí.) |
| DAVID: Your camera is really cheap. |
| ECHO: Yeah just say 你的相机 or 给，你的相机。(Nǐ de xiàngjī) or (gěi, nǐ de xiàngjī.) |
| DAVID: Next question though, what about the watch? |
| ECHO: 手表。(Shǒubiǎo.) |
| DAVID: Watch. |
| ECHO: 手表。(Shǒubiǎo.) |
| DAVID: There is no tradition surrounding the watch right? |
| ECHO: Right now, I think there is no tradition. |
| DAVID: Right. |
| ECHO: But before, 30 years ago when people got married, they have the tradition to… |
| DAVID: Of giving a watch. |
| ECHO: Yeah to buy watch to each other. |
| DAVID: So we’ve replaced the watch tradition with the cellphone tradition. |
| ECHO: And the camera tradition. |
| DAVID: Our next item is also very popular. |
| ECHO: 笔记本儿。(Bǐjìběn er.) |
| DAVID: Laptop. |
| ECHO: 笔记本儿。(Bǐjìběn er.) There is no tradition. |
| DAVID: There is no tradition here however something is really important, pay attention to the 儿(Er) right in there. |
| ECHO: Yes 笔记本儿。(Bǐjìběn er.) |
| DAVID: 笔记本儿。(Bǐjìběn er.) If you don’t have that, it’s 笔记本。(Bǐjìběn.) |
| ECHO: Yeah. |
| DAVID: And that means notepad. |
| ECHO: Right it sounds like notebooks. |
| DAVID: Yeah something that you write in physically with a pen. So that’s 笔记本.(Bǐjìběn.) |
| ECHO: Yeah. |
| DAVID: Laptop you got to say |
| ECHO: 笔记本儿。(Bǐjìběn er.) |
| DAVID: As in my laptop is an Apple. |
| ECHO: 我的笔记本儿是苹果的。(Wǒ de bǐjìběn er shì píngguǒ de.) |
| DAVID: My laptop is an Apple. |
| ECHO: 我的笔记本儿是苹果的。 (Wǒ de bǐjìběn er shì píngguǒ de.) |
| DAVID: Laptops are of course a kind of computer. |
| ECHO: 电脑。(Diànnǎo.) |
| DAVID: Which we have covered before. So we are going to jump past this to our last word, speakers. |
| ECHO: 音箱。(Yīnxiāng.) |
| DAVID: Both first tone. |
| ECHO: 音箱。(Yīnxiāng.) |
| DAVID: It’s literally like music box. |
| ECHO: Right. |
| DAVID: These speakers are very expensive. |
| ECHO: 这些音箱很贵。(Zhèxiē yīnxiāng hěn guì.) |
| DAVID: These speakers are very expensive. |
| ECHO: 这些音箱很贵。 (Zhèxiē yīnxiāng hěn guì.) |
| DAVID: Any way, that’s our vocab. Our grammar point here is a real winner. So let’s get to that. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: Our focus this lesson is |
| ECHO: 自己。(Zìjǐ.) |
| DAVID: This is a pronoun and it means one self. |
| ECHO: 自己。(Zìjǐ.) |
| DAVID: So we run into it combined with |
| ECHO: 我，他 。(Wǒ, tā.) |
| DAVID: Or |
| ECHO: 你。(Nǐ.) |
| DAVID: Yeah or other pronouns. So you can say me, myself. |
| ECHO: 我自己。(Wǒ zìjǐ.) |
| DAVID: He himself. |
| ECHO: 他自己。(Tā zìjǐ.) |
| DAVID: Or you yourself. |
| ECHO: 你自己。(Tā zìjǐ.) |
| DAVID: In the dialogue, we ran to it in this sentence. |
| ECHO: 我没钱，你自己买吧。(Wǒ méi qián, nǐ zìjǐ mǎi ba.) |
| DAVID: I don’t have any money. You yourself buy one. |
| ECHO: 我没钱，你自己买吧。(Wǒ méi qián, nǐ zìjǐ mǎi ba.) |
| DAVID: So the key thing to remember is we put this after our pronoun. |
| ECHO: Yes with more examples such as 我自己去。(Wǒ zìjǐ qù.) |
| DAVID: I go myself. |
| ECHO: 我自己去。(Wǒ zìjǐ qù.) |
| DAVID: Right. Someone asks who is going and you are saying, I will go myself. |
| ECHO: 我自己去。(Wǒ zìjǐ qù.) |
| DAVID: Now in these sentences, this is a subject. So we are putting it before the verb. |
| ECHO: 我自己工作。(Wǒ zìjǐ gōngzuò.) |
| DAVID: I work myself. |
| ECHO: 我自己工作。(Wǒ zìjǐ gōngzuò.) |
| DAVID: I am doing the work myself. |
| ECHO: Or you can say 我自己来。(Wǒ zìjǐ lái.) |
| DAVID: I will do it myself. |
| ECHO: 我自己来。(Wǒ zìjǐ lái.) |
| DAVID: Right and 来 here means kind of to come and do it. |
| ECHO: Yeah. |
| DAVID: Now in all of the sentences we have done to date, the pronoun plus 自己 (Zìjǐ) has been in subject but it doesn’t need to be this way. |
| ECHO: 对。(Duì.) |
| DAVID: Right, you can have sentences where it’s showing up as the object. |
| ECHO: Such as 说说你自己。(Shuō shuō nǐ zìjǐ.) |
| DAVID: Right, you – you talk about you yourself. |
| ECHO: 说说你自己。(Shuō shuō nǐ zìjǐ.) |
| DAVID: And we can also see it is incorrect objects or associated with prepositions. |
| ECHO: Yeah or you can say 今天只有我们自己。(Jīntiān zhǐyǒu wǒmen zìjǐ.) |
Outro |
| David: Yeah today there is only us, ourselves. Right this is more complex though and we are going to run into this sort of thing at the elementary level and above. For now though, just be aware that when we’ve got this together with a pronoun, we are changing the meaning from me to me myself. |
| ECHO: 我自己。(Wǒ zìjǐ.) |
| DAVID: From you to you yourself. |
| ECHO: 你自己。(Wǒ zìjǐ.) |
| DAVID: And here she to they themselves. |
| ECHO: 她自己 (Wǒ zìjǐ.) or 她们自己。(Tāmen zìjǐ.) |
| DAVID: And that brings us to the end of our grammar section. Before we leave you, we want to remind you that we’ve got this 1 on 1 tutoring service and we give everyone who is interested a free trial to check it out. |
| ECHO: Right. |
| DAVID: So if you are listening and you want to just chat for 20 minutes practicing your Chinese, send us an email and contactus@chineseclass101.com |
| ECHO: 没错儿。(Méi cuò ér.) |
| DAVID: With that though, that’s our podcast for today. From Beijing, I am David. |
| ECHO: 我是Echo. (Wǒ shì Echo.) |
| DAVID: Thanks a lot for listening and we will see you on the site. |
| ECHO: Bye bye. |
Comments
HideWhich cellphone would you like to buy now?
In the review track, there is a sentence he wants to buy a computer - I don't think we've come across the sentence before, but is there are measure word in there that is certainly new to me - is this what is being said:
Wǒ xiǎng yī tái diànnǎo
Hello Jhinxin,
A big thank you for your post and kind feedback!❤️
We're glad to have you with us! 👍
If there's any way we can help you throughout your studies, please don't hesitate to ask us any questions you have here.
Cheers,
Ali
Team ChineseClass101.com
😄😄😄😳😳😁😁😁😁😒😁😎😎😠😆😅😎😒😒😠😉😉😭😇😅👍👍👍 very good lesson
你好拜伦,
Thank you for your comment. They mean the same thing, 本人 is more formal.
If you have any questions, please let us know.
Ngai
Team ChineseClass101.com
What's the difference between 我自己 and 本人? 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 说说你自己。
robert
Hi, Jessica Peng,
Thank you for your posting.
我没钱 = 我没有钱
You can use either of them, because they are both formal and informal.
Cho
Team ChineseClass101.com
In the last line of the dialogue, the husband says, "我没钱..." Is it acceptable, then, to leave out the 有? Is this colloquial? When is this commonly done?
谢谢! :grin:
Hi May,
没错 and 对啊 are both used a lot in daily language when agreeing with someone and keeping the conversation flowing. In this case, there isn't much difference between those two.
The most colloquial way of saying husband and wife is 老公，老婆 lǎogōng , lǎopo . While one of the formal but common ways of saying that is 先生，太太 xiānshēng , tàitai
Yinru
Team ChineseClass101.com
Is there a difference between 没错 and 对啊。
And I notice there are so many terms for husband as well as wife. What is the most colloquial and formal for both husband and wife?
Hi Keis,
Thanks for your message. The Chinese sentence should be 我找不到笔记本（电脑）。
We'll fix it ASAP.
Thanks!
Chloe
Hi Echoe and David,
In the vocabulary section, I cannot find a laptop. 笔记本在那儿？ The order of words seems slightly different, too.
Regards,
Keis
Hi Christine,
Sure. To answer your questions:
1) It's 这些音箱很贵 Zhe4xie1 yin1xiang1 hen3 gui4. "Zhe4xie1" means these.
2) I said 没错儿 mei2cuo4r5. It means exactly.
Echo
Team ChineseClass101.com
Echo and David,
谢谢 你们, 这 个 课 很 好!
xie4 xie5 ni3men5, zhe4 ge5 ke4 hen3 hao3!
But my hearing has failed me twice and I was wondering if you could help?
1) The first time occurred when you were talking about 音箱. The sentence Echo said was “these speakers are very expensive”. I can’t make out the second word. I believe it is: “Zhe4 ???? yin1xian1 hen3 gui4 (这 ???? 音箱很贵)”
2) The second time is at the very ending. Echo uses this saying quite often at the end and I’m not sure what it is. It sounds like mei tuo er. From context it sounds like a phrase used for agreement.
Hi Robin,
Thank you a lot for giving us a feedback, it's great to hear you're enjoying the lessons!
Thank you for sharing your experience too.
This is really uncool, as you said and quite sad...
Another part of the world, another culture!
If you need any help, feel free to ask us anything!
Cheers!
Mélanie
Team ChineseClass101
I've been gaining a lot of cultural insights over my two trips to China as well as working through Chinese Class 101. Chinese relationships I still find a mystery. It appears that there are a lot of very demanding, needy girls who somehow seem proud of the amount of material goods they score from their partners. This is so different to my own background where woman take pride in their own resourcefulness. Partnerships usually are based on working towards mutual financial security.
I'll never forget a young Chinese colleague who once told me that she had been going out with her boyfriend for 2 months and he bought her a .... brand watch. She was disgusted because after 2 months he should have known that she only likes ... brand watches. She told me that she didn't think the relationship would last because he know so little about her preferences.
Where I come from this is a very uncool attitude.
Great lesson, useful vocab, clear grammar regardless. Thanks.
Hi Eugene,
Yes, you are right! All fixed. Thank you :oops:
La3ba5 and yin1xiang1 are the same thing, but I have changed it into yin1xiang1. Thank you!
Echo
Team ChineseClass101.com
these translations are from the lesson notes. I think there are mistakes.
2. 他自己走了。
tā zìjǐ zǒu le.
"You go by yourself."
4. 你自己干吧。
nǐ zìjǐ gàn ba.
"I'll do it myself."
are laoba(from lesson notes) and yinxiang(from the audio lesson) the same thing?