Learn how to form possessives in Chinese using de
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Frank: Hey, everyone! |
| Echo: Da jia hao! |
| Frank: Welcome back to ChineseClass101.com, Season 1, Lesson 5 in our Beginner Series. I’m Frank Fradella and I’m joined in the studio today by the exceptionally talented Echo. |
| Echo: Thank you. I’m so flattered. 大家好(Dàjiā hǎo). Let’s talk about Chinese. |
| Frank: Yeah. We’re going to talk about Chinese and how to say “I speak Chinese”. It’s an important phrase. Let’s get down to it. Today’s dialogue takes place in a café between old friends. |
| Echo: Zhang Fei and Ma Li. |
| Frank: Exactly. The conversation is about, “Can you speak Chinese”. |
| Echo: Yes. Can you speak Chinese? |
| Frank: You bet I can. You can too by becoming a premium subscriber to ChineseClass101.com. It’s actually less expensive than a university education and more effective too. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Frank: So come to the site, sign up, and we’ll see you there. But for now, we’re going to move on to the dialogue. |
Lesson conversation |
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| 马丽:你会说汉语吗？(Mǎ lì: Nǐ huì shuō hànyǔ ma?) |
| 张飞:我会说一点儿。(Zhāng fēi: Wǒ huì shuō yìdiǎnr.) |
| 马丽:你的汉语不错。(Mǎ lì: Nǐ de hànyǔ bùcuò.) |
| 张飞:我只会说一点儿。(Zhāng fēi: Wǒ zhǐ huì shuō yìdiǎnr.) |
| Frank: Let’s hear that one more time, slowly. |
| 马丽:你会说汉语吗？(Mǎ lì: Nǐ huì shuō hànyǔ ma?) |
| 张飞:我会说一点儿。(Zhāng fēi: Wǒ huì shuō yìdiǎnr.) |
| 马丽:你的汉语不错。(Mǎ lì: Nǐ de hànyǔ bùcuò.) |
| 张飞:我只会说一点儿。(Zhāng fēi: Wǒ zhǐ huì shuō yìdiǎnr.) |
| Frank: Okay, we’re back. I got to warn you folks, we’re going to go through this dialogue pretty slow on a second but if this is a phrase that you can get right, people think you’re fluent and they’re going to hit you with the machine gun Mandarin. |
| Echo: Wait, what is machine gun Mandarin? |
| Frank: That’s when you say it and it sounds almost fluent. Like, people think, “Wow, you really know this stuff”, so they just unleash Mandarin at you, just like the character, they’re flying at you like bullets. So, yeah. Study this one, get it right, and you’ll be surprised at how well people will think you speak Mandarin. Okay. Let’s do this line by line. |
| 马丽:你会说汉语吗？(Mǎ lì: Nǐ huì shuō hànyǔ ma?) |
| Frank: Can you speak Chinese? |
| 张飞:我会说一点儿。(Zhāng fēi: Wǒ huì shuō yìdiǎnr.) |
| Frank: I can speak a little. |
| 马丽:你的汉语不错。(Mǎ lì: Nǐ de hànyǔ bùcuò.) |
| Frank: Your Mandarin isn’t bad. |
| 张飞:我只会说一点儿。(Zhāng fēi: Wǒ zhǐ huì shuō yìdiǎnr.) |
| Frank: I can only speak a little. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Frank: Okay, welcome back. You heard a few sentences in this thing that were a little longer than you used to, a little longer than previous lessons. |
| Echo: But don’t worry about it. |
| Frank: Don’t worry about it. Most of the stuff that you’ve heard here, most of the vocab, you’ve heard before. Just a few extra words and we’re going to cover them for you now. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Frank: Let’s do it. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Male: Now, the vocal section. |
| Echo: 会。(Huì.) |
| Frank: To be able to. |
| Echo: 会。(Huì.) |
| Echo: 汉语。(Hànyǔ.) |
| Frank: Mandarin. |
| Echo: 汉语。(Hànyǔ.) |
| Echo: 你的(Nǐ de) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: Your. |
| Echo: 你的(Nǐ de) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 你的(Nǐ de) [natural native speed]. |
| Echo: 不錯(Bùcuò) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: Not bad. |
| Echo: 不錯(Bùcuò) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 不錯(Bùcuò) [natural native speed]. |
| Echo: 只(Zhǐ) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: Only. |
| Echo: 只(Zhǐ) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 只(Zhǐ) [natural native speed]. |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Echo: Okay, we’re done. |
| Frank: That wasn’t bad. A matter of fact, how do you say “not bad”? |
| Echo: 不錯(Bùcuò) |
| Frank: Which is our first vocab word of the day. How do you say that again? |
| Echo: 不錯(Bùcuò) |
| Frank: We told you before that the word for “not”… |
| Echo: 不。(Bù.) |
| Frank: …was a fourth tone word, and it is. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Frank: Except when it sits next to another fourth tone word like… |
| Echo: 错。(Cuò.) |
| Frank: Exactly. Okay. Let’s hear a few more examples. |
| Echo: 不累。(Bù lèi.) |
| Frank: Not tired. |
| Echo: 不饿。(Bù è.) |
| Frank: Not hungry. |
| Echo: 不忙。(Bù máng.) |
| Frank: Not busy. That’s actually the fourth tone. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Frank: Now we know rules and exceptions can be a little scary, but don’t worry. All you have to do right now is listen to the way we say these things, repeat after us, try to match the tones, and you’ll be just fine. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Frank: Next, we’re going to talk about languages. In the dialogue, we heard the Mandarin languages for two this way. |
| Echo: 汉语。(Hànyǔ.) |
| Frank: We heard it in this sentence, “Can you speak Chinese?” |
| Echo: 你会说汉语吗？(Nǐ huì shuō hànyǔ ma?) |
| Frank: But there’s another way to say in Chinese that’s actually also really common. |
| Echo: 中文。(Zhōngwén.) |
| Frank: So you can say, “I can speak Chinese”. |
| Echo: 我会说中文。(Wǒ huì shuō zhōngwén.) |
| Frank: And both are perfectly acceptable. In Chinese, there’s also two ways to refer to the English language. |
| Echo: 英语。(Yīngyǔ.) |
| Frank: And? |
| Echo: 英文。(Yīngwén.) |
| Frank: Right. So if you wanted to ask someone, “Can you speak English?” |
| Echo: 你会说英语吗？(Nǐ huì shuō yīngyǔ ma?) |
| Frank: “Can you speak English?” Or you can answer, “I can speak English.” |
| Echo: 我会说英文。(Wǒ huì shuō yīngwén.) |
| Frank: Perfect. Certainly useful phrases that I’m sure you’ll use a lot. |
| Echo: For sure. |
| FRANK: Let’s move on to the grammar section. |
| Echo: Yeah. Let’s do it. |
Lesson focus |
| Frank: Today’s first grammar point is something you’re going to be able to use over and over again. What is it, Echo? |
| Echo: 会。(Huì.) |
| Frank: Which means, “to be able to do something.” |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Frank: This is any skill that you’ve grasp through learning or acquired through some kind of study. What are some of the things you can 会?(Huì?) |
| Echo: 会说。(Huì shuō.) |
| Frank: To be able to speak. |
| Echo: 会写。(Huì xiě.) |
| Frank: To be able to write. |
| Echo: 会弹。(Huì dàn.) |
| Frank: To be able to play musical instruments. |
| Echo: Yes. 会弹。(Huì dàn.) |
| Frank: Great. What about the sentence, “Can you speak English?” |
| Echo: 你会说英语吗？(Nǐ huì shuō yīngyǔ ma?) |
| Frank: Or, “I can speak a little Chinese”. |
| Echo: 我会说一点儿中文。(Wǒ huì shuō yìdiǎnr zhōngwén.) |
| Frank: Let’s try that sentence in the negative, “I cannot speak Japanese”. |
| Echo: 我不会说日语。(Wǒ bù huì shuō rìyǔ.) |
| Frank: So once again, putting… |
| Echo: 不。(Bù.) |
| Frank: Before a verb makes it negative. |
| Echo: Yes. “I cannot speak Japanese.” |
| Frank: Exactly. |
| Male: It’s grammar time! |
| Frank: In a minute, we’re going to give you a review of how you ask a question. |
| Echo: 吗(Ma) |
| Frank: But before we do, we want to teach you how to take pronoun and make it possessive. |
| Echo: Yes. We’ll just put the 的(De) at the end of the pronoun. |
| Frank: Exactly. So the word for “you” is… |
| Echo: 你(Nǐ) |
| Frank: “Yours”. |
| Echo: 你的。(Nǐ de.) |
| Frank: The word for “me”? |
| Echo: 我。(Wǒ.) |
| Frank: “Mine.” |
| Echo: 我的。(Wǒ de.) |
| Frank: Finally, the word for “him.” |
| Echo: 他。(Tā.) |
| Frank: And let’s make it “his”. |
| Echo: 他的。(Tā de.) |
| Frank: Great. Now let’s hear some examples of this. “He’s Chinese”. |
| Echo: 他的中文。(Tā de zhōngwén.) |
| Frank: “Your English.” |
| Echo: 你的英语。(Nǐ de yīngyǔ.) |
| Frank: “My Japanese.” |
| Echo: 我的日语。(Wǒ de rìyǔ.) |
| Frank: Now a quick review of how we ask a question. |
| Echo: You can just put the question marker 吗(Ma) at the end. |
| Frank: Right. So you can actually turn a statement into a question. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Frank: For example, “He can speak Chinese.” |
| Echo: 他会说汉语。(Tā huì shuō hànyǔ.) |
| Frank: “Can he speak Chinese?” |
| Echo: 他会说汉语吗？(Tā huì shuō hànyǔ ma?) |
| Frank: Just by adding the question marker at the end. |
| Echo: Yeah. It’s very easy. |
| Frank: It’s just that simple. Let’s hear it one more time. “Can he speak Chinese?” |
| Echo: 他会说汉语吗？(Tā huì shuō hànyǔ ma?) |
| Frank: When you come to China, this is probably the sentence you’re going to hear a lot, “Can you speak Chinese?” |
| Echo: 你会说汉语吗？(Nǐ huì shuō hànyǔ ma?) |
| Frank: You can identify this as a question by the question marker at the end. |
| Echo: 吗。(Ma) |
| Frank: But you might want to ask them if they can speak English. |
| Echo: Yeah, that’s very important. 你会说英语吗?(Nǐ huì shuō yīngyǔ ma?) |
| Frank: “Can you speak English?” Exactly. |
| Echo: 你会说英语吗？(Nǐ huì shuō yīngyǔ ma?) |
| Frank: Obviously, the best way to practice your tones and your Chinese is to actually come to China. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Frank: But if you can’t do that right away, you can still go to ChineseClass101.com. Come to our website and checkout our great voice recording tool. |
| Echo: Yes. Exactly. |
| Frank: It actually allows you to record your voice and then hear it back and compare it to a native speaker. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Frank: It couldn’t be any more helpful, and we’re open 24 hours a day. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Frank: Much like China. |
| Echo: Okay. |
| Frank: From China, from Beijing here in the studios, I’m Frank Fradella… |
| Echo: I’m Echo. |
| Frank: And we’ll see you next time. |
| Echo: See you. |
| Frank: 再见。(Zàijiàn.) |
| Echo: Bye bye. |
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