Learn a structure that shows how to ask about how an action took place in the past and present tense
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Anthony: Hi and welcome to chineseclass101, the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn Chinese. |
| Echo: 嗨，大家好，我是Echo。(Hāi, dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo.) |
| Anthony: And I am Anthony. This is our 23rd lesson in our second season of our beginner series. |
| Echo: And the title of today’s lesson is The Cheapest Way to Travel in China. |
| Anthony: Yes in today’s lesson, we are going to reveal the secrets to getting around China quickly while also saving money. |
| Echo: Yep and today’s dialogue takes place between two friends. |
| Anthony: And they are deciding how to get to their destination. |
| Echo: So in today’s lesson, we will cover different ways of getting around the city. |
| Anthony: Yes there are some good ways and some not so good ways of getting around Beijing. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Anthony: Okay before we go to the dialogue however, if you haven’t signed up with a free lifetime account |
| Echo: Right. |
| Anthony: Go to chineseclass101, all you need to do is enter in your email address. |
| Echo: Right. What are you waiting for? |
| Anthony: Okay with that said, let’s go on to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 我们怎么去？(Wǒmen zěnme qù?) |
| 坐出租车吧？(Zuò chūzūchē ba?) |
| 出租车太贵了。(Chūzūchē tài guì le.) |
| 地铁呢？(Dìtiě ne?) |
| 好。(Hǎo.) |
| Anthony: One more time, a little bit slower. |
| 我们怎么去？(Wǒmen zěnme qù?) |
| 坐出租车吧？(Zuò chūzūchē ba?) |
| 出租车太贵了。(Chūzūchē tài guì le.) |
| 地铁呢？(Dìtiě ne?) |
| 好。(Hǎo.) |
| Anthony: One more time, a little bit slower. |
| Echo: 我们怎么去？(Wǒmen zěnme qù?) |
| Anthony: How should we go? |
| Echo: 坐出租车吧？(Zuò chūzūchē ba?) |
| Anthony: How about a taxi? |
| Echo: 出租车太贵了。(Chūzūchē tài guì le.) |
| Anthony: Taxi is too expensive. |
| Echo: 地铁呢？(Dìtiě ne?) |
| Anthony: Well what about the subway? |
| Echo: 好。(Hǎo.) |
| Anthony: Okay sounds good. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Anthony: So Echo, you and I both live next to subway stations. What’s great about that? |
| Echo: Taking the subway is the cheapest and easiest way of getting around the city. |
| Anthony: That’s right. It’s cheap, it’s fast but sometimes during rush hour, it can be a little crowded. |
| Echo: Yeah that’s why I like taxis. |
| Anthony: Especially in the summer, you can use the AC. It comes in really handy in the taxi. |
| Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.) So today we’ve prepared a vocabulary list having to do with getting around town. |
| Anthony: That’s right. Words you are definitely going to use when you are zipping around the city. |
| Echo: Okay. So let’s go to the vocab now. |
| Anthony: Okay. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Anthony: And now the vocab section. |
| Echo: 坐 (zuò) |
| Anthony: To sit. |
| Echo: 坐, 坐. 出租车 (zuò, zuò. chūzūchē) |
| Anthony: Taxi. |
| Echo: 出租车, 出租车. 地铁 (chūzūchē, chūzūchē. dìtiě) |
| Anthony: Subway. |
| Echo: 地铁, 地铁. 公交车 (dìtiě, dìtiě. gōngjiāochē) |
| Anthony: City bus. |
| Echo: 公交车, 公交车. 开车 (gōngjiāochē, gōngjiāochē. kāichē) |
| Anthony: To drive a car. |
| Echo: 开车, 开车. 自行车 (kāichē, kāichē. zìxíngchē) |
| Anthony: Bicycle. |
| Echo: 自行车, 自行车. 走路 (zìxíngchē, zìxíngchē. zǒulù) |
| Anthony: To go by foot. |
| Echo: 走路, 走路. 走路 (zǒulù, zǒulù. zǒulù) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Anthony: So as we mentioned earlier, the theme for today’s lesson is getting around town. |
| Echo: Right. So our first word is 坐 (zuò) |
| Anthony: To sit. |
| Echo: 坐 (zuò) |
| Anthony: As in let’s go on the bus. |
| Echo: 我們坐车去吧。(Wǒmen zuòchē qù ba.) |
| Anthony: Yeah. How about let’s take the bus? |
| Echo: Yeah 我們坐车去吧。(Wǒmen zuòchē qù ba.) |
| Anthony: So if public transportation isn’t your thing, you can always take this. |
| Echo: 出租车 (Chūzū chē) |
| Anthony: Taxi. |
| Echo: 出租车 (Chūzū chē) |
| Anthony: So Echo, let’s see this word used in a sentence. |
| Echo: 你想坐出租车吗？ (Nǐ xiǎng zuò chūzū chē ma?) |
| Anthony: Do you feel like taking a taxi? |
| Echo: 你想坐出租车吗？(Nǐ xiǎng zuò chūzū chē ma?) |
| Anthony: So Echo, lately taxis have been getting a little bit more expensive. So Beijing has this new gas tax… |
| Echo: Right. |
| Anthony: Which adds one kuai to every trip over 3 kilometers. |
| Echo: Exactly. So to travel fast and cheap, you should take 地铁 (Dìtiě) |
| Anthony: Subway. |
| Echo: 地铁 (Dìtiě) |
| Anthony: And for only two kuai, you can ride for as long and as far as you want. |
| Echo: 地铁很方便。(Dìtiě hěn fāngbiàn.) |
| Anthony: The subway is very convenient. |
| Echo: 地铁很方便。(Dìtiě hěn fāngbiàn.) |
| Anthony: Okay and another way to get around town cheap but not as fast is the |
| Echo: 公交車 (Gōngjiāo chē) |
| Anthony: City bus. |
| Echo: And we can also say 公共汽车 (Gōnggòng qìchē) |
| Anthony: Yes this means the same as city bus. |
| Echo: 这儿有公交车吗？(Zhè'er yǒu gōngjiāo chē ma?) |
| Anthony: Is there a bus here? |
| Echo: 这儿有公交车吗？(Zhè'er yǒu gōngjiāo chē ma?) |
| Anthony: So back in the States, public transportation isn’t used that often but here in China, it’s used on a mass scale. Everybody takes a bus, everybody takes the subway. |
| Echo: Yes right buses go everywhere and they are always packed. |
| Anthony: Okay so we’ve talked about taking public transportation. What about if you want to drive yourself? |
| Echo: 开车 (Kāichē) |
| Anthony: To drive a vehicle. |
| Echo: 开车。你开车来吗？(Kāichē. Nǐ kāichē lái ma?) |
| Anthony: Will you drive here? |
| Echo: 你开车来吗？(Nǐ kāichē lái ma?) |
| Anthony: I really wouldn’t recommend driving in China. The traffic, it’s really congested. |
| Echo: Yeah especially in Beijing. |
| Anthony: Especially in Beijing, especially during rush hour. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Anthony: So to beat the traffic, you should ride this. |
| Echo: 自行车。(Zìxíngchē.) |
| Anthony: Bicycle. |
| Echo: 自行车。(Zìxíngchē.) |
| Anthony: Yeah. I ran my bike to work. |
| Echo: That’s your favorite right? |
| Anthony: Yeah I love riding bikes, any place within a 5 kilometer radius, I am riding my bike too. |
| Echo: So you can say 我喜欢骑自行车。(Wǒ xǐhuān qí zìxíngchē.) |
| Anthony: I like to ride bicycles. |
| Echo: 我喜欢骑自行车。(Wǒ xǐhuān qí zìxíngchē.) |
| Anthony: Okay notice the verb that we are using here. |
| Echo: It’s 骑 (Qí) but not 坐 (Zuò) anymore. |
| Anthony: Right. So last but not least, the oldest form of getting around. |
| Echo: And the most healthy way 走路。(Zǒulù.) |
| Anthony: Yes this means to walk. |
| Echo: 走路。(Zǒulù.) |
| Anthony: And the literal translation means to go by street. |
| Echo: Yes. 那里很近，那里很近，可以走路去。(Nàlǐ hěn jìn, nàlǐ hěn jìn, kěyǐ zǒulù qù.) |
| Anthony: The place is close, we can walk there. |
| Echo: 那里很近，可以走路去。(Nàlǐ hěn jìn, kěyǐ zǒulù qù.) |
| Anthony: Okay so that does it for our vocab section. In review, we’ve covered a few ways to getting around town such as |
| Echo: 坐公交车 (Zuò gōngjiāo chē) |
| Anthony: Taking the bus. |
| Echo: 开车 (Kāichē) |
| Anthony: Driving a car. |
| Echo: 坐地铁 (Zuò dìtiě) |
| Anthony: Taking the subway. |
| Echo: 骑自行车 (Qí zìxíngchē) |
| Anthony: Riding bicycles and Echo’s favorite, the most healthiest way to getting around town. |
| Echo: 走路 (Zǒulù) |
| Anthony: Yes walking. |
| Echo: Yeah but Beijing is a bit too big for 走路。(Zǒulù.) |
| Anthony: Yes Beijing is definitely spread out. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Anthony: Okay with that, let’s go into the grammar section. So the focus of today’s lesson is asking about how an action was carried out. And for that in Chinese, we use |
| Echo: 怎么 (Zěnme) plus a verb and there are two ways we are going to go over on how to ask this question. |
| Anthony: Right. One is in the present tense and the second is in the past tense. |
| Echo: Right. We saw an example of the present tense in the dialogue 我们怎么去？ (Wǒmen zěnme qù?) |
| Anthony: How are we going to get there? |
| Echo: 我们怎么去？(Wǒmen zěnme qù?) |
| Anthony: So as Echo has already said, in the present tense, we follow this formula. |
| Echo: 怎么 (Zěnme) plus a verb. So in the example, we had 怎么去 (Zěnme qù) |
| Anthony: Right and the implied meaning here is, do we walk, do we take a bus, do we take a taxi, et cetera et cetera. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Anthony: Echo, let’s take a look at a few more examples in the present tense. |
| Echo: Okay 你怎么上班？(Nǐ zěnme shàngbān?) |
| Anthony: How do you get to work? |
| Echo: 你怎么上班？(Nǐ zěnme shàngbān?) |
| Anthony: Yes and once again, this is what method of transportation do you use to get to work. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| Anthony: Okay our next example. |
| Echo: 他怎么过来？(Tā zěnme guòlái?) |
| Anthony: How does he get here? |
| Echo: 他怎么过来？(Tā zěnme guòlái?) |
| Anthony: Yeah does he walk here, drive here, run here. |
| Echo: But this is very colloquial. It’s like if you are throwing a party and… |
| Anthony: Maybe it’s raining outside. |
| Echo: Right, you can ask your friend like 他怎么过来？(Tā zěnme guòlái?) |
| Anthony: Yeah he swam here because it’s raining so hard…. |
| Echo: That’s very cool. |
| Anthony: Okay so our next sentence Echo. |
| Echo: 他们怎么去英国？(Tāmen zěnme qù yīngguó?) |
| Anthony: How are they going to England? |
| Echo: 他们怎么去英国？(Tāmen zěnme qù yīngguó?) |
| Anthony: Right. So once again, we have this formula. |
| Echo: 怎么 (Zěnme) plus a verb. |
| Anthony: So we’ve covered the present tense. Now let’s take a look at the past tense. |
| Echo: Right. The only difference is that we put a 的 (De) at the end of the sentence to indicate the past tense. Notice that we don’t use 了(Le) here. |
| Anthony: Right. So let’s use the same examples from before but turn them into the past tense. |
| Echo: Okay 他怎么过来的？(Tā zěnme guòlái de?) |
| Anthony: How did he get here? |
| Echo: 他怎么过来的？他怎么过来的？(Tā zěnme guòlái de? Tā zěnme guòlái de?) Notice there is a 的 (De) at the end of the sentence to mark the past tense. |
| Anthony: So we have the same meaning as before. Now this structure is used to show that the action has been carried out. |
| Echo: Let’s hear some other examples 他们怎么去英国的？(Tāmen zěnme qù yīngguó de?) |
| Anthony: How did they go to England? |
| Echo: 他们怎么去英国的？(Tāmen zěnme qù yīngguó de?) |
| Anthony: Right. So they are asking about what type of travel was used. |
| Echo: 这是怎么做的？(Zhè shì zěnme zuò de?) |
| Anthony: How did you cook this? |
| Echo: 这是怎么做的？(Zhè shì zěnme zuò de?) |
| Anthony: This is a very, very useful sentence to know if you are at a restaurant and the food looks little iffy. They want to know, did you prepare this right. Okay what’s our next example? |
| Echo: 老板怎么说的？(Lǎobǎn zěnme shuō de?) |
| Anthony: Yes how did the boss say it? |
| Echo: 老板怎么说的？(Lǎobǎn zěnme shuō de?) |
| Anthony: Okay so in review, we’ve learned how to ask about an action. |
| Echo: In the present tense, the formula is 怎么 (Zěnme) plus a verb. |
| Anthony: And in the past tense |
| Echo: It is 怎么 (Zěnme) plus verb plus 的 (De) |
| Anthony: Right. So we are going to leave you with one last example. |
| Echo: 你的中文怎么学的？(Nǐ de zhōngwén zěnme xué de?) |
| Anthony: How did you study Chinese? |
| Echo: 你的中文怎么学的？(Nǐ de zhōngwén zěnme xué de?) |
| Anthony: So if someone asked you this question, you can always tell them that you studied |
| Echo: At chineseclass101. 在chineseclass101学的。(Zài chineseclass101 xué de.) |
| Anthony: And the best way to study Chinese is of course by signing up |
| Echo: A premium subscription on chineseclass101.com |
| Anthony: Right. You are going to get access to audio files, PDFs. The PDFs are going to allow you to review the Chinese characters. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
Outro |
| Anthony: Review the vocabulary. Okay with that, I am Anthony. |
| Echo: 我是Echo。(Wǒ shì Echo.) |
| Anthony: From Beijing, thanks for listening and we will see you next time. |
| Echo: 下次见！(Xià cì jiàn!) |
| Anthony: Bye bye. |
| Echo: Bye bye. |
Easily master this lesson’s grammar points with in-depth explanations and examples. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Comments
Hide