Learn a frequently used verb that has several meanings
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Jane: Hello my name is Jane. |
| Canaan: And this is Canaan here and welcome back to chineseclass101.com |
| Jane: So Canaan, what are we learning today? |
| Canaan: Well today is Absolute Beginner series, season 3, lesson 12. |
| Jane: Saving energy in China. |
| Canaan: Sounds like a very in topic to talk about especially with recent attention to global warming. |
| Jane: Well maybe our dialogue is not quite up to that level yet. |
| Canaan: That’s all right. We will get there someday. So what’s our lesson about today? |
| Jane: It’s a very practical lesson today and you will learn how to say when you want to have something done. |
| Canaan: And the conversation takes place inside a dark room. |
| Jane: It’s between two friends. |
| Canaan: And then suddenly one of them turns around and now, it’s not one of those. |
| Jane: The speakers are friends. So they are speaking in casual Mandarin. |
| Canaan: Now before we find out what happens in this darkish room, we want to remind our listeners about our one-on-one tutor service where we provide you with high quality, native Mandarin teachers. |
| Jane: And they will definitely help you to improve your Chinese. |
| Canaan: Just check it out on our website www.chineseclass101.com |
| Jane: You won’t regret. |
| Canaan: Let’s go to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 这屋里有点儿黑。(Zhè wū lǐ yǒudiǎner hēi.) |
| 要开灯吗？(Yào kāidēng ma?) |
| 要。(Yào.) |
| 对不起，没电了。(duìbuqǐ, méidiàn le.) |
| Canaan: And now with the English translation. |
| 这屋里有点儿黑。(Zhè wū li yǒudiǎn er hēi.) |
| It is a bit dark in this room. |
| 要开灯吗？(Yào kāi dēng ma?) |
| Need the light turned on? |
| 要。(Yào.) |
| Yes. |
| 对不起，没电了。(Duìbùqǐ, méi diànle.) |
| I am sorry, the electricity is out. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Jane: I remember, there used to be many black cards in Beijing when I was growing up but not anymore. |
| Canaan: Black cards used to be fairly common incurrence back when Beijing was still developing. |
| Jane: 是的。(shì de .) |
| Canaan: Now of course as we mentioned, it’s all about prepaid electricity cards, right? |
| Jane: 没错儿 (méicuòr) |
| Canaan: So you can go to the bank and buy your electricity there and you bring the card back home and stick it in the little meter thing right? |
| Jane: That’s right. Not just electricity. We have even water or gas pretty much everything we use with card these days. |
| Canaan: You are right. It used to be pretty inconvenient back when you had to depend on the water and the gas and the electricity company to provide everything continually. Now all these services are automated. |
| Jane: So most likely it is because you forgot to charge up the electricity card. |
| Canaan: You have a black out. |
| Jane: 没错. (Méicuò. ) |
| Canaan: Now today’s vocabulary is comprised mostly of words that are used commonly in our daily lives relating to electricity, gas, water and so on and so forth. So it will be of particular use to those of you who are studying Chinese in order to come over and live here who are living here already. |
| Jane: Yeah things you will have to deal with pretty much every day. |
| Canaan: Right. So let’s take a look at the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Jane: 屋里 (wū lǐ) |
| Canaan: Inside the room. |
| Jane: 屋里 屋里 (Wū li wū li) |
| Jane: 开灯 (kāidēng) |
| Canaan: To turn on the light. |
| Jane: 开灯 开灯 (Kāi dēng kāi dēng) |
| Jane: 关灯 (guāndēng) |
| Canaan: To turn off the light. |
| Jane: 关灯 关灯 (Guān dēng guān dēng) |
| Jane: 要 (yào) |
| Canaan: To want. |
| Jane: 要 要 (Yào yào) |
| Jane: 黑 (hēi ) |
| Canaan: Black. |
| Jane: 黑 黑 (Hēi hēi) |
| Jane: 暗 (àn) |
| Canaan: Dim. |
| Jane: 暗 暗 (Àn'àn) |
| Jane: 停电 (tíngdiàn) |
| Canaan: To lose electricity or have a black out. |
| Jane: 停电 停电 (Tíngdiàn tíngdiàn) |
| Jane: 没电 (méidiàn) |
| Canaan: To run out of power, to be out of batteries. |
| Jane: 没电 没电 (Méi diàn méi diàn) |
| Jane: 省电 (shěng diàn) |
| Canaan: To save power. |
| Jane: 省电 省电 (Shěng diàn shěng diàn) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Canaan: Now let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases in this lesson. |
| Jane: And the first word is 屋里 (wū lǐ) |
| Canaan: Inside the room. |
| Jane: 屋里 (wū lǐ) |
| Canaan: Inside the room. And here is the first character. |
| Jane: 屋 (wū ) |
| Canaan: Now this is a general term for room. It could be any type of room, any room in your house since in the old days many Chinese people didn’t have the luxury of having a house with multiple rooms. |
| Jane: 是的。(shì de .) A sample sentence 屋里有很多人。(wū lǐ yǒu hěn duō rén .) |
| Canaan: There are many people in the room. |
| Jane: 屋里有很多人。(wū lǐ yǒu hěn duō rén .) You know Canaan, there is a very old term for life. It is called 屋里的 (wū lǐ de) |
| Canaan: Yeah I’ve heard of it meaning inside the room. They also used to say 家里的 (jiālǐ de) meaning inside home but of course it’s rarely if ever used anymore. |
| Jane: Yeah because in the old days, women used to stay at home and look after what’s happening inside the house. |
| Canaan: Right while the men used to worry about what’s happening outside the house. Our next word is the word for the color black. |
| Jane: 黑 (hēi) |
| Canaan: Black. |
| Jane: In our dialogue here, when we use it to describe the room as being a little dark, you can use another word. |
| Canaan: Which is? |
| Jane: 暗 (àn) |
| Canaan: Dim or dark. |
| Jane: 暗 (àn) |
| Canaan: This is probably more appropriate to use when describing natural light levels than 黑 (hēi) |
| Jane: 是的。(shì de .) 屋里太暗了。(wū lǐ tài àn le .) |
| Canaan: It’s too dark in the room. |
| Jane: 屋里太暗了。(wū lǐ tài àn le .) |
| Canaan: Well if it’s too dark, somebody should turn on the light. |
| Jane: 开灯 (kāidēng) |
| Canaan: Turn on the light. |
| Jane: 开灯 (kāidēng) |
| Canaan: Now the verb 开 (kāi) is interesting. It actually means to open, right? |
| Jane: 是的。(shì de .) It is verb for opening the door or turn on the TV or even your mobile. |
| Canaan: Right. It’s a very, very useful verb and of course the second character in the word is the general term for light as in electronic light. |
| Jane: 开灯时要小心。(kāidēng shí yào xiǎoxīn .) |
| Canaan: You should be careful when turning on the light. |
| Jane: 开灯时要小心。(kāidēng shí yào xiǎoxīn .) |
| Canaan: So since we are trying to save energy here, what’s the opposite of turn on. |
| Jane: 关灯 (guāndēng) |
| Canaan: To turn off the light. |
| Jane: 关灯 (guāndēng) |
| Canaan: So the verb 开 (kāi) and 关 (guān) are antonyms. |
| Jane: 是的。(shì de .) 你关灯了吗？(Nǐ guān dēngle ma?) |
| Canaan: Did you turn the light off? |
| Jane: 你关灯了吗？ (nǐ guāndēng le ma ? ) |
| Canaan: Now the next word in our vocabulary refers directly to the title of this lesson. |
| Jane: 省电 (shěng diàn) |
| Canaan: To save power. |
| Jane: 省电 (shěng diàn) |
| Canaan: Literally means to save electricity. So the first character |
| Jane: 省 (shěng ) |
| Canaan: Means to save. Then we could change the object to anything we want to talk about saving. For instance |
| Jane: 省钱 (shěngqián) |
| Canaan: To save money. |
| Jane: 省钱 (shěngqián) |
| Canaan: And the best way to |
| Jane: 省电 (shěng diàn) |
| Canaan: Is to have the electricity cut off. |
| Jane: 停电 (tíngdiàn) |
| Canaan: To lose electricity or in broader situations, to have a black out. |
| Jane: 家里停电了。(jiālǐ tíngdiàn le .) |
| Canaan: The electricity is out at home. |
| Jane: 家里停电了。(jiālǐ tíngdiàn le .) |
| Canaan: Now the last word for today is |
| Jane: 没电 (méidiàn) |
| Canaan: Run out of electricity. |
| Jane: 没电 (méidiàn) |
| Canaan: Run out of electricity or be out of batteries. This is often used to refer to chargeable battery operated implements such as |
| Jane: Mobile phone. |
| Canaan: Right. |
| Jane: 我的手机没电了。(Wǒ de shǒujī méidiàn le .) |
| Canaan: My mobile phone is out of batteries. |
| Jane: 我的手机没电了。(Wǒ de shǒujī méidiàn le .) |
| Canaan: Now today we had a lot of vocabulary that was related to |
| Jane: 电 (diàn) |
| Canaan: Electricity. |
| Jane: It should be useful to you, we hope. |
| Canaan: And our grammar point for today is going to be even more useful. |
| Jane: We think |
| Canaan: We assume. |
| Jane: Let’s take a look now. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Canaan: It’s grammar time. So once again, today’s grammar point is going to focus on a single word. |
| Jane: 要 (yào) |
| Canaan: To want. |
| Jane: 要 (yào) |
| Canaan: And that’s just one of the many meanings this word has. We say it’s important because you need to know this word in order to let others know what it is you want. |
| Jane: 我要吃苹果。(Wǒ yào chī píngguǒ .) |
| Canaan: I want to eat an apple. |
| Jane: 我要吃苹果。(Wǒ yào chī píngguǒ .) |
| Canaan: Still saying it that way sounds a little childish, don’t you think? |
| Jane: 是的。(shì de .) Often you hear children talk to their parents like this. |
| Canaan: So, how can we make it sound less childish but still express what we want? |
| Jane: 我想要吃苹果。(Wǒ xiǎngyào chī píngguǒ .) |
| Canaan: I would like to eat an apple. |
| Jane: 我想要吃苹果。(Wǒ xiǎngyào chī píngguǒ .) |
| Canaan: So all we’ve done is added the verb 想 (xiǎng) in front of 要 (yào) |
| Jane: 是的。(shì de .) |
| Canaan: Right. Now the second meaning for 要 (yào) is to need to or should. |
| Jane: And it is just a short for 需要 (xūyào) |
| Canaan: To need. |
| Jane: 需要 (xūyào) But in spoken conversation, we often just say 要 (yào) |
| Canaan: Can we have a sample sentence? |
| Jane: 这个要放屋里。(zhège yào fàng wū lǐ .) |
| Canaan: This needs to be put in the room. |
| Jane: 这个要放屋里。(zhège yào fàng wū lǐ.) 你要好好学习。(nǐ yào hǎohāo xuéxí .) |
| Canaan: You should study hard. |
| Jane: 你要好好学习。(nǐ yào hǎohāo xuéxí .) |
| Canaan: By the way, the phrase |
| Jane: 好好学习 (hǎohāo xuéxí) |
| Canaan: Is a standard phrase, a set phrase almost that parents or teachers use when they are talking to kids in China. |
| Jane: 没错儿 (méicuòr) I grew up with it. Note that the second meaning of 要 (yào) the subjects often, it sings rather than pronounced 我 (Wǒ) |
| Canaan: More like imperative sentences because it’s often about telling people what needs to be or what should be done. |
| Jane: 没错儿 (méicuòr ) |
| Canaan: Now the last meaning of 要 (yào) that we want to talk about today is often used in future tense sentences meaning something is going to. |
| Jane: 要下雨了。(yào xiàyǔ le .) |
| Canaan: It’s going to rain. |
| Jane: 要下雨了。(yào xiàyǔ le .) |
| Canaan: Note that the word 了 le here does not refer to a completed action but it is rather a set pattern to be used with the word 要 yào indicating a change that will happen in the future. |
| Jane: 是的。(shì de .) 明天他要去英国了。(míngtiān tā yào qù Yīngguó le .) |
| Canaan: He is going to the United Kingdom tomorrow. |
| Jane: 明天他要去英国了。(míngtiān tā yào qù Yīngguó le .) So today, we talked about the three different meanings of 要 (yào) |
| Canaan: First, to want to which sounds a little better if you put 想 (xiǎng) in front of it. |
| Jane: And the second is to need to or should to often used in imperative sentences to give instructions or advices. |
| Canaan: Right and lastly in future tense sentences to indicate that something is going to happen. All right, that will do it for today’s lesson. |
Outro |
| Jane: But if you missed out anything or not sure about some of the usages we’ve been talking about |
| Canaan: Don’t forget. Our online premium PDF files have all the transcripts written down line by line. |
| Jane: You also find even more sample sentences on the lesson notes. |
| Canaan: Right. So check out our website at chineseclass101.com but for now. |
| Jane: 我是Jane (Wǒ shì Jane.) |
| Canaan: And I am Canaan saying 我们要走了。(wǒmen yào zǒu le .)See you next time. |
| Jane: See ya. |
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