Learn about prepositions
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Intro |
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| David: So we’ve got a conversation that takes place on the streets. |
| Echo: And someone is injured. |
| David: Yes and someone else is calling for help. We are going to see how that turns out. |
| Echo: Right. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A: 你受伤了？(Nǐ shòushāng le?) |
| B: 我们去医院。(Wǒmen qù yīyuàn.) |
| A: 叫救护车，快！(Jiào jiùhùchē, kuài!) |
| B: 救护车今天没空。(Jiùhùchē jīntiān méikòng.) |
| A: 什么？(Shénme?) |
| B: 今天放假，全国救护车日。(Jīntiān fàngjià, quánguójiùhùchērì.) |
| David: One more time a bit slower. |
| A: 你受伤了？(Nǐ shòushāng le?) |
| B: 我们去医院。(Wǒmen qù yīyuàn.) |
| A: 叫救护车，快！(Jiào jiùhùchē, kuài!) |
| B: 救护车今天没空。(Jiùhùchē jīntiān méikòng.) |
| A: 什么？(Shénme?) |
| B: 今天放假，全国救护车日。(Jīntiān fàngjià, quánguójiùhùchērì.) |
| David: And now with the English translation. |
| Echo: 你受伤了？Nǐ (shòushāng le?) |
| David: Are you injured? |
| Echo: 我们去医院。(Wǒmen qù yīyuàn.) |
| David: Let's go to the hospital. |
| Echo: 叫救护车，快！(Jiào jiùhùchē, kuài!) |
| David: Call for an ambulance, quickly! |
| Echo: 救护车今天没空。(Jiùhùchē jīntiān méikòng.) |
| David: The ambulances aren't running today. |
| Echo: 什么？(Shénme?) |
| David: What? |
| Echo: 今天放假，全国救护车日。(Jīntiān fàngjià, quánguójiùhùchērì.) |
| David: They're off today. It's National Ambulance Day. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: This is not true by the way. |
| Echo: No. |
| David: Ambulances in China do not take days off. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: And what’s the number again if you need one. |
| Echo: There are two numbers actually. The first one is 120, the second one is 999. |
| David: Yeah that 911 will get you nowhere in China. |
| Echo: No way. |
| David: So 120 or 999. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Echo: 受伤 (shòushāng) [natural native speed] |
| David: to be injured |
| Echo: 受伤 (shòushāng)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 受伤 (shòushāng) [natural native speed] |
| Echo: 医院 (yīyuàn) [natural native speed] |
| David: hospital |
| Echo: 医院 (yīyuàn)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 医院 (yīyuàn)[natural native speed] |
| Echo: 叫 (jiào) [natural native speed] |
| David: to call for |
| Echo: 叫 (jiào)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 叫 (jiào)[natural native speed] |
| Echo: 救护车 (jiùhùchē) [natural native speed] |
| David: ambulance |
| Echo: 救护车 (jiùhùchē)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 救护车 (jiùhùchē)[natural native speed] |
| Echo: 没空 (méikòng)[natural native speed] |
| David: not to be available |
| Echo: 没空 (méikòng)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 没空 (méikòng)[natural native speed] |
| Echo: 放假 (fàngjià)[natural native speed] |
| David: to have a vacation |
| Echo: 放假 (fàngjià)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 放假 (fàngjià)[natural native speed] |
| Echo: 全国 (quánguó) [natural native speed] |
| David: nationwide, national |
| Echo: 全国 (quánguó)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 全国 (quánguó)[natural native speed] |
| Echo: 日 (rì)[natural native speed] |
| David: day |
| Echo: 日 (rì)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 日 (rì)v[natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| David: Let’s take a closer look at some of these words and phrases. The first word we want to highlight is 受伤 (shòushāng)to be injured |
| Echo: 受伤.(Shòushāng.) |
| David: So this is a verb, not an adjective. Right in English, we would say injured and in Chinese, it’s a verb. It literally means to receive a wound. |
| Echo: 受伤.(Shòushāng.) |
| David: So when we see it, it’s often used as in our dialogue |
| Echo: 你受伤了？Nǐ (shòushāng le?) |
| David: Are you injured |
| Echo: 你受伤了？(Nǐ shòushāng le?) |
| David: and the 了(Le) is the key part there because it’s change of state. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: Have you just been injured? If someone’s been injured for a while, Chinese people will be more specific and will say, I’ve got a broken arm, I’ve got a broken leg. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: Right. This is a generic word. |
| Echo: Yeah, 受伤.(Shòushāng.) |
| David: Now if you have an injury, you are probably going to want to go to the hospital 医院.(Yīyuàn.) Hospital |
| Echo: 医院.(Yīyuàn.) |
| David: Most hospitals in China offer western medicine right. If you are looking for Chinese medicine, you are looking for a different kind of hospital, which will be Chinese hospital. |
| Echo: Right, 中医院.(Zhōng yīyuàn.) |
| David: So you don’t need to specify that you want western medicine. If you want, go to hospital and just say… |
| Echo: 我想去医院.(Wǒ xiǎng qù yīyuàn.) |
| David: I want to go to the hospital. |
| Echo: 我想去医院.(Wǒ xiǎng qù yīyuàn.) |
| David: I want to go to the hospital, or ask people directly, where is the hospital? |
| Echo: 医院在哪？(Yīyuàn zài nǎ?) |
| David: Where is the hospital? |
| Echo: 医院在哪？(Yīyuàn zài nǎ?) |
| David: Now if you can’t make it and you need to call for an ambulance, you are going to have to ask for a 救护车(Jiùhù chē) ambulance. |
| Echo: 救护车.(Jiùhù chē.) |
| David: which is literally a rescue and protect car. |
| Echo: Right, 救护车.(Jiùhù chē.) |
| David: The first sound there 救 (Jiù) is the word for rescue. So if you need help, you could say, help me 救我 (Jiù wǒ) or help, help, help me 救我救我救我, or 救救我.(Jiù wǒ jiù wǒ jiù wǒ, or jiù jiù wǒ.) Yeah you can repeat it a couple of times if you want. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: So once more, the word for ambulance 救护车.(Jiùhù chē.) I need an ambulance... |
| Echo: 我需要一辆救护车.(Wǒ xūyào yī liàng jiùhù chē.) |
| David: I need an ambulance. |
| Echo: 我需要一辆救护车.(Wǒ xūyào yī liàng jiùhù chē.) |
| David: And that measure word 辆 (Liàng) is used for cars and vehicles. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: Right. So that’s our medical vocab. Before we get to our grammar point, there is one more word I want to highlight which is the word we translated as to be busy or to be occupied. 没空 (Méi kōng) this literally means there is no space. |
| Echo: 没空.(Méi kōng.) |
| David: But you will also see it used more generally when things are unavailable 没空.(Méi kōng.) Can you give us an example? |
| Echo: Sure. 我今天没空.(Wǒ jīntiān méi kōng.) |
| David: I am not free today. |
| Echo: Sure. 我今天没空.(Wǒ jīntiān méi kōng.) |
| David: Right. |
Lesson focus |
| David: Now we’ve already taught you a lot of the basics. This is season 4. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: But what we want to do today is a bit of review and bit of highlighting something you may not have noticed yet. |
| Echo: 没错. (Méi cuò.) |
| David: Take a look at this line in the dialogue... |
| Echo: 叫救护车，快！(Jiào jiùhù chē, kuài!) |
| David: we translated that as Call for an ambulance quickly. |
| Echo: 叫救护车，快！(Jiào jiùhù chē, kuài!) |
| David: Yeah call for an ambulance quickly and what we want to highlight is the way we said, call for 叫 (Jiào) call for 叫.(Jiào.) Now we use this word in a lot of contexts. Here it’s calling for an ambulance… |
| Echo: 叫救护车.(Jiào jiùhù chē.) |
| David: It could also be calling for takeout… |
| Echo: 叫外卖.(Jiào wàimài.) |
| David: calling for takeout. |
| Echo: 叫外卖.(Jiào wàimài.) |
| David: Right, if you are in the hospital, you will hear people calling for a doctor... |
| Echo: 叫医生.(Jiào yīshēng.) |
| David: calling for a doctor 叫医生 (Jiào yīshēng) and the interesting thing here is that in English, we are saying calling for. We’ve got this proposition there. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: And it’s missing in Chinese. |
| Echo: Yes it’s pretty simple in Chinese. We just say 叫X.(Jiào X.) |
| David: Yes and this happens all the time. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| David: We’ve got it in this verb to call for 叫.(Jiào.) We also see it in the verb to go 去 (Qù) which we often translate as to go to. |
| Echo: That’s true like 我想去医院.(Wǒ xiǎng qù yīyuàn.) |
| David: I want to go to the hospital. |
| Echo: Right 我想去医院.(Wǒ xiǎng qù yīyuàn.) |
| David: Let’s have one more example. |
| Echo: 给.(Gěi.) |
| David: To give as in 给他 (Gěi tā) give to him. 给他 (Gěi tā) give to him. Now this trips up a lot of people. You often try to translate English directly into Chinese. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: But Chinese is a more compact language and there are lot of cases where these sorts of words, they just get dropped. |
| Echo: Exactly. |
| David: So as you are listening to our dialogues and working through the transcripts, look at the cases where there is nothing between the verb and it’s object. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| David: Okay. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: And… |
| Echo: It’s just as simple. |
| David: Yes. It’s easier than English. |
Outro |
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