Learn about the many uses for the Chinese particle
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Frank: Hey, everyone. |
| Echo: Da jia hao! |
| Frank: Welcome back to ChineseClass101.com, Season 1, Lesson 17 in our Beginner series. Today, someone has taken some people out for dinner. |
| Echo: Exciting? Well, not exciting. |
| Frank: Echo is not quite so excited about this. Look at here… |
| Echo: I hate Zhang Fei. |
| Frank: Why you just admit it? But today’s dialogue is between three friends. |
| Echo: Yes. Well, maybe they’re friends. Maybe they are not. |
| Frank: Maybe they’re more. They are at home, and they’re all speaking casually. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Frank: Let’s go ahead and listen to the dialogue now. |
| Echo: Before we do… |
| Frank: Before we do, you know what, you guys have got to a healthy number of words in your vocabulary at this point. You should be reviewing those words with the flashcards up at ChineseClass101.com. |
| Echo: Exactly. It’s very good. |
| Frank: They’re very easy to use and they’re a lot of fun too. So make sure you get a premium subscription so you’ve got access to all that great stuff. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Frank: Let’s go ahead and listen to the dialogue now. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| 张飞:你们饿了吗？(ZHĀNG FĒI: Nǐmen è le ma?) |
| 马丽:我不太饿。(MǍ LÌ: Wǒ bù tài è.) |
| 李芳:我饿了。(LǏ FĀNG: Wǒ è le.) |
| 张飞:我们一起吃饭吧。(ZHĀNG FĒI: Wǒmen yīqǐ chī fàn ba.) |
| 马丽、李芳:好。(MǍ LÌ, LǏ FĀNG: Hǎo.) |
| Frank: One more time, just a little slower. |
| 张飞:你们饿了吗？(ZHĀNG FĒI: Nǐmen è le ma?) |
| 马丽:我不太饿。(MǍ LÌ: Wǒ bù tài è.) |
| 李芳:我饿了。(LǏ FĀNG: Wǒ è le.) |
| 张飞:我们一起吃饭吧。(ZHĀNG FĒI: Wǒmen yīqǐ chī fàn ba.) |
| 马丽、李芳:好。(MǍ LÌ, LǏ FĀNG: Hǎo.) |
| Echo: Oh, I start to hate Zhang Fei now. |
| Frank: I know you do. |
| Echo: He’s a bad guy. |
| Frank: He’s not a bad guy. He’s just taking some friends out to dinner. |
| Echo: No. He knows that Ma Li likes him. |
| Frank: So you think Ma Li is going to be jealous about this? |
| Echo: She will feel bad. |
| Frank: You really think so? |
| Echo: She will feel bad. |
| Frank: Now is that a cultural thing or are you just…? |
| Echo: It’s not cultures! But he knows Ma Li likes him. How can he treat another woman together? |
| Frank: I don’t think he’s treating her badly. He’s taking her to dinner as well. |
| Echo: As well? Hello? |
| Frank: They were both hungry. They were all hungry. |
| Echo: It’s not a date anymore. |
| Frank: Hey, let’s go out to dinner. |
| Echo: No. I think that’s why Ma Li said, “I’m not that hungry” 我不太饿.(Wǒ bù tài è.) but Li Fang said “I’m hungry” so Zhang Fei said 我们一起吃饭吧.(Wǒmen yīqǐ chī fàn ba.) That so… |
| Frank: We’re going to have to see how this plays out in the future lessons, I think. |
| Echo: I hate him. I hate him. |
| Frank: Let’s go ahead and listen to the dialogue line-by-line and we’ll translate it for you. |
| 张飞:你们饿了吗？(ZHĀNG FĒI: Nǐmen è le ma?) |
| Frank: Hey, are you guys hungry? |
| 马丽:我不太饿。(MǍ LÌ: Wǒ bù tài è.) |
| Frank: I’m not too hungry. |
| 李芳:我饿了。((LǏ FĀNG: Wǒ è le.)) |
| Frank: I am. |
| 张飞:我们一起吃饭吧。(ZHĀNG FĒI: Wǒmen yīqǐ chī fàn ba.) |
| Frank: Let's go eat something together. |
| 马丽、李芳:好。(MǍ LÌ, LǏ FĀNG: Hǎo.) |
| Frank: Okay. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Echo: That man… |
| Frank: I don’t hear her disagreeing with any part of that. |
| Echo: Well, how could Ma Li says, “No”? |
| Frank: Oh. Because then she’s in danger of looking like the bad guy. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Frank: Oh, I see how it is. But today’s an exciting vocab day, Echo. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Frank: We’ve got “we” and “us”, and “they”, and “them”… |
| Echo: Yeah. It’s great. |
| Frank: …and “you”. It’s the plural “you” but it’s “you” still. So let’s go ahead and have a look at that. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Male: Now, the vocab section. |
| Echo: 你們(nǐmen) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: You (plural). |
| Echo: 你們(nǐmen) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 你們(nǐmen) [natural native speed]. |
| Echo: 饿。(È.) |
| Frank: Hungry. |
| Echo: 饿。(È.) |
| Echo: 不太饿。(Bù tài è.) |
| Frank: Not too hungry. |
| Echo: 不太饿。(Bù tài è.) |
| Echo: 我們(wǒmen) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: We. |
| Echo: 我們(wǒmen) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 我們(wǒmen) [natural native speed]. |
| Echo: 一起(yīqǐ) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: Together. |
| Echo: 一起(yīqǐ) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 一起(yīqǐ) [natural native speed]. |
| Echo: 吃饭(chī fàn) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: To eat. |
| Echo: 吃饭(chī fàn) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 吃饭(chī fàn) [natural native speed]. |
| Echo: 吧(ba) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: A suggestive particle. |
| Echo: 吧(ba) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 吧(ba) [natural native speed]. |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Frank: Today’s vocab focuses on making things plural. If you were talking to just one person and you said “you”… |
| Echo: 你。(Nǐ.) |
| Frank: That’s how it would sound. But if you were talking to 10 people… |
| Echo: 你，你们。(Nǐ, nǐmen.) |
| Frank: You can do the same exact thing if you’re talking to “he”, “she”, or “it”. |
| Echo: 他。(Tā.) |
| Frank: Making that plural sounds like this. |
| Echo: 他们。(tāmen.) |
| Frank: If I’m talking about myself… |
| Echo: 我。(Wǒ) |
| Frank: Now I’m talking about “we” or “us”. |
| Echo: 我们。(wǒmen.) |
| Frank: Great. Let’s hear all of those together. |
| Echo: 我(Wǒ)，我们。你(Wǒmen. Nǐ)，你们。他(Nǐmen. Tā)，他们。(tāmen.) |
| Frank: Great. Let’s hear them in some sample sentences. “We want to drink tea”. |
| Echo: 我们想喝茶。(Wǒmen xiǎng hē chá.) |
| Frank: What do you guys want to eat? |
| Echo: 你们想吃什么？(Nǐmen xiǎng chī shénme?) |
| Frank: They go together. |
| Echo: 他们一起去。(Tāmen yīqǐ qù.) |
| Frank: We want to buy a bottle of water. |
| Echo: 我们想买一瓶水。(Wǒmen xiǎng mǎi yī píng shuǐ.) |
| Frank: Depending on where you are exactly. You’ll hear this at the end of some nouns as well. So for example, child…. |
| Echo: 孩子。(Háizi.) |
| Frank: …becomes children. |
| Echo: 孩子们。(Háizimen.) |
| Frank: Student… |
| Echo: 学生。(Xuéshēng.) |
| Frank: …becomes students. |
| Echo: 学生们。(Xuéshēngmen.) |
| Frank: Teacher…. |
| Echo: 老师。(lǎoshī) |
| Frank: …becomes teachers. |
| Echo: 老师们。(Lǎoshīmen.) |
| Frank: Friend… |
| Echo: 朋友。(Péngyǒu.) |
| Frank: …becomes friends. |
| Echo: 朋友们。(Péngyǒumen) |
| Frank: Now we’d like to invite all of our friends to join us on the grammar section. |
| Echo: 朋友们。(Péngyǒumen.) |
| Frank: Let’s go. |
| Echo: Let’s go. |
Lesson focus |
| Male: It’s grammar time. |
| Frank: One of the first sentence patterns we taught you involve sentences with adjectives using the adverb… |
| Echo: 很(Hěn) |
| Frank: For example, “I am good”. |
| Echo: 我很好。(Wǒ hěn hǎo) |
| Frank: They are busy. |
| Echo: 他们很忙。(Tāmen hěn máng.) |
| Frank: We are tired. |
| Echo: 我们很累。(Wǒmen hěn lèi.) |
| Frank: We also learned to set expression that means “great” or “too good” or “awesome”. |
| Echo: 太好了。(Tài hǎole.) |
| Frank: Today, we’re going to bring these together because… |
| Echo: 太 (Tài)is an adverb. |
| Frank: And we could use it to replace… |
| Echo: 很。(Hěn.) |
| Frank: Exactly. So instead of saying “she’s really good”… |
| Echo: 她很好。(Tā hěn hǎo.) |
| Frank: … we can now say “she is awesome.” |
| Echo: 她太好了。(Tā tài hǎole.) |
| Frank: Awesome. Let’s have some examples of this. “I’m terribly thirsty.” |
| Echo: 我太渴了。(Wǒ tài kěle.) |
| Frank: Apple computers are too expensive. |
| Echo: 苹果电脑太贵了。(Píngguǒ diànnǎo tài guìle.) |
| Frank: The water is too hot. |
| Echo: 水太热了.(Shuǐ tài rèle.) Did you notice the way we added 了(Le) to the end of those sentences? |
| Frank: That’s right. If you remember in our last podcast, we told you that… |
| Echo: 了(Le) has two big meanings. |
| Frank: The first is to put sentences into the past tense. |
| Echo: Exactly. |
| Frank: The second is to indicate a change of state. |
| Echo: What we have here is a change of state. |
| Frank: Exactly. Something has become awesome. |
| Echo: 太好了。(Tài hǎole.) |
| Frank: Or to expensive. |
| Echo: 太贵了。(Tài guìle.) |
| Frank: Now negative sentences don’t need the change of state because nothing has actually changed. So we just say… |
| Echo: 不太(Bù tài) something |
| Frank: Right, not to something. “We are not too tired”. |
| Echo: 我们不太累。(Wǒmen bù tài lèi..) |
| Frank: They are not too hungry. |
| Echo: 他们不太饿。(Tāmen bù tài è.) |
| Frank: This is not too expensive. |
| Echo: 这个不太贵。(Zhège bù tài guì.) |
| Frank: Great. Now Echo, tell us about the strange sound that we heard at one of these sentences in the dialogue. |
| Echo: You mean 吧?(Ba?) |
| Frank: It’s exactly what I mean. |
| Male: 我们一起吃饭吧。(Wǒmen yīqǐ chīfàn ba.) |
| Echo: We add 吧(Ba) at the end of sentences to make them suggestions. |
| Frank: Exactly. For example, “Let’s go”. |
| Echo: 我们去吧。(Wǒmen qù ba.) |
| Frank: Let’s eat. |
| Echo: 我们吃饭吧。(Wǒmen chīfàn ba.) |
| Frank: Isn’t that right? |
| Echo: 对吧？(Duì ba?) |
| Frank: This has another purpose as well. It also softens a command. |
| Echo: Exactly. That’s very useful. |
| Frank: Very useful. So instead of saying, “sit down”, you can say, “have a seat”. |
| Echo: 坐吧。(Zuò ba.) |
| Frank: Precisely. Echo, that’s great but we’ve already talked too much. |
| Echo: 太多了。(Tài duōle.) |
| Frank: So for now, we’re going to say Goodbye but we do want to remind you to head up to ChineseClass101.com. Check out those downloadable PDF so you can read the transcripts. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Frank: Get the extra grammar. There’s all kinds of great stuff. |
| Echo: Exactly. |
| Frank: But for now from Beijing, I’m your host, Frank Fradella… |
| Echo: 我是(Wǒ shì) Echo. |
| Frank: …and we’ll see you next time. 再见。(Zàijiàn.) |
| Echo: 下次见.(Xià cì jiàn.) |
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