Learn two ways to add emphasis to different kinds of sentences
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| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Welcome to chineseclass101. I am David. |
| Echo: 大家好，我是 (Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì) Echo。 |
| David: Series 1, lesson 5 in our elementary set. |
| Echo: 我们的初级第五课。(Wǒmen de chūjí dì wǔ kè.) |
| David: Yeah and we’ve got a great lesson for you. Our dialogue for today, it takes place at a party between two male friends and they are talking about a mysterious woman. |
| Echo: 一个漂亮的女孩。(Yīgè piàoliang de nǚhái.) |
| David: Let’s listen to the dialogue. |
| Echo: But before we do. |
| David: Before we do, Chinese is a language where little changes in intonation make huge changes in meaning. The words kiss and the word ask for instance |
| Echo: 一个是吻，另外一个是问。(Yīgè shì wěn, lìngwài yīgè shì wèn.) |
| David: Right. So come to chineseclass101, practice your pronunciation with our voice recording tool. Let’s take a listen to the dialogue now. This is not the model of supportive friendship. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Tiansen: 哎，你能告诉我那个女孩是谁吗？(āi, nǐ néng gàosu wǒ nàge nǚhái shì shéi ma?) |
| Andy: 哪个女孩？(Nǎge nǚhái?) |
| Tiansen: 就是那个漂亮的女孩。(Jiù shì nàge piàoliang de nǚhái.) |
| Andy: 她叫王云，是个模特。(Tā jiào Wáng Yún, shì ge mótè.) |
| Tiansen: 哎呀，她真好看。(āiyā, tā zhēn hǎokàn.) |
| Andy: 你和她？一定不可能。(Nǐ hé tā? Yīdìng bù kěnéng.) |
| Tiansen: Hey, can you tell me who that girl is? |
| Andy: Which girl? |
| Tiansen: That beautiful girl. |
| Andy: She's called Wang Yun. She's a model. |
| Tiansen: Wow. She's really good-looking. |
| Andy: You and her? That'll never happen. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Echo: 但可能是好朋友。(Dàn kěnéng shì hǎo péngyǒu.) |
| David: You’ve got to be realistic here. You have no chance with this girl. |
| Echo: So don’t waste off your time. |
| David: How depressing! Let’s move on to the vocab. And now the vocab section. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Echo: 能。(néng.) |
| David: To be able. |
| Echo: 能。(néng)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 能。(néng)[natural native speed] |
| Echo: 告诉。(gàosu.) |
| David: To tell. |
| Echo: 告诉。(gàosu.)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 告诉。(gàosu.)[natural native speed] |
| Echo: 就。(jiù.) |
| David: Precisely. |
| Echo: 就。(jiù.)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 就。(jiù.)[natural native speed] |
| Echo: 模特儿。(Mótè ér.) |
| David: Model. |
| Echo: 模特儿。(Mótè ér.) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 模特儿。(Mótè ér.) [natural native speed] |
| Echo: 哎呀。(āiyā.) |
| David: Ah yeah. |
| Echo: 哎呀。(āiyā.)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 哎呀。(āiyā.)[natural native speed] |
| Echo: 一定。(yīdìng.) |
| David: Certainly. |
| Echo: 一定。(yīdìng.)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 一定。(yīdìng.)[natural native speed] |
| Echo: 可能。(kěnéng) |
| David: Maybe. |
| Echo: 可能。(kěnéng.)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 可能。(kěnéng.)[natural native speed] |
| David: Okay. In our vocab section, we’d like to highlight two words for you. The first is |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Echo: 告诉。(gàosu.) |
| David: And that means to tell. Here in Beijing, you also hear people drop the second part of that. |
| Echo: 告。(Gào.) |
| David: Yeah. |
| Echo: 我告你。(Wǒ gào nǐ.) |
| David: Yep. |
| Echo: 你告诉我今天是星期几？(Nǐ gàosù wǒ jīntiān shì xīngqí jǐ?) |
| David: Can you tell me what day it is today. |
| Echo: 你能告诉我他是谁吗？(Nǐ néng gàosù wǒ tā shì shéi ma?) |
| David: Can you tell me who he is? Did he tell you? |
| Echo: 他告诉你了吗？(Tā gàosù nǐle ma?) |
| David: Our second word is |
| Echo: 可能。(Kěnéng.) |
| David: Right. This is an adjective. It means maybe or perhaps. It’s very possible. |
| Echo: 很可能。(Hěn kěnéng.) |
| David: It’s possible I might go home. |
| Echo: 我很可能要回家。(Wǒ hěn kěnéng yào huí jiā.) |
| David: What else Echo? |
| Echo: 他很可能还没回来。(Tā hěn kěnéng hái méi huílái.) |
| David: He very probably still hasn’t come back. |
| Echo: 他很可能是个模特儿。(Tā hěn kěnéng shìgè mótè ér.) |
| David: It’s likely that she is a model. |
| Echo: Here is a culture point I want to mention. 中国人不喜欢拒绝别人。(Zhōngguó rén bù xǐhuān jùjué biérén.) |
| David: Yeah. |
| Echo: We really hate to refuse people. |
| David: It’s a bit rude to turn someone down to their face yeah. |
| Echo: But well we say 可能 (Kěnéng) instead. |
| David: Right so if you are doing business in China and people are giving you a lot of 可能 (Kěnéng) really they are saying no. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| David: Or maybe they are saying no. Don’t take that word for it… |
| Echo: Or I don’t want to talk about this now. |
| David: Yeah. So watch out for that. Moving on to the grammar section, we have something that’s really interesting. It’s grammar time. In today’s grammar section, we are going to teach you how to add emphasis to sentences using two adverbs. The first is |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Echo: 就。(Jiù.) |
| David: The second is |
| Echo: 一定。(Yīdìng.) |
| David: Let’s start with 就. In the dialogue, we see this in what sentence? |
| Echo: 就是那个漂亮的女孩。(Jiùshì nàgè piàoliang de nǚhái.) |
| David: Right. So we are taking the adverb and we are putting it in front of the verb to be and it means exactly to be or precisely to be. Can we have some examples of this? |
| Echo: 当然。他就是我要找的人。(Dāngrán. Tā jiùshì wǒ yào zhǎo de rén.) |
| David: He is exactly the person I want to find. |
| Echo: 那个穿白衣服的人就是我哥哥。(Nàgè chuān bái yīfú de rén jiùshì wǒ gēgē.) |
| David: The person wearing the white clothes is exactly my brother. |
| Echo: 我可以问您一个问题吗？(Wǒ kěyǐ wèn nín yīgè wèntí ma?) |
| David: 可以。(Kěyǐ.) |
| Echo: 你在中国吃过麦当劳吗？(Nǐ zài zhōngguó chīguò màidāngláo ma?) |
| David: Of course I’ve eaten McDonald’s in China and I know what you are going to talk about next. |
| Echo: 呵呵，是什么？(Hēhē, shì shénme?) |
| David: You are going to talk about their slogan. |
| Echo: 我就喜欢。(Wǒ jiù xǐhuān.) |
| David: Yeah I am loving it. In Chinese, they translated this as I exactly like it or I precisely like it. |
| Echo: 我就喜欢。(Wǒ jiù xǐhuān.) |
| David: Right. |
| Echo: 我就喜欢。(Wǒ jiù xǐhuān.) |
| David: And it’s a clue that we can use this with other verbs as well. In fact, we can use this to provide emphasis with a whole range of verbs. Echo, give us some examples. |
| Echo: 就在。我的学校就在这里。(Jiù zài. Wǒ de xuéxiào jiù zài zhèlǐ.) |
| David: My school is located exactly here. |
| Echo: 就要。他就要这件衬衫。(Jiù yào. Tā jiù yào zhè jiàn chènshān.) |
| David: He wants exactly this shirt. |
| Echo: 就买。我就买这个。(Jiù mǎi. Wǒ jiù mǎi zhège.) |
| David: I am going to buy precisely this. Moving on, we’ve got the second adverb here. |
| Echo: 一定。(Yīdìng.) |
| David: This means certainly or definitely and we can also put this in front of verbs such as in the sentences |
| Echo: 我今天晚上一定去。(Wǒ jīntiān wǎnshàng yīdìng qù.) |
| David: I am absolutely going this evening. |
| Echo: 现在已经九点了，他一定回家了。(Xiànzài yǐjīng jiǔ diǎnle, tā yīdìng huí jiāle.) |
| David: It’s already 9 o’ clock. He’s certainly gone home. Now if we take a look at the dialogue, we are putting this |
| Echo: 一定。(Yīdìng.) |
| David: In front of an adjective phrase. |
| Echo: 一定不可能。(Yīdìng bù kěnéng.) |
| David: Certainly not possible and here is one thing we want you to watch out for. You can take both of these and put them in front of verbs but you can only take 一定。(Yīdìng.) |
| Echo: 一定。(Yīdìng.) |
| David: And put that in front of adjectives. Can we have some examples? |
| Echo: 那个菜一定很好吃。(Nàgè cài yīdìng hěn hào chī.) |
| David: Umm that dish is certainly good to eat. |
| Echo: 你今天一定很累了吧。(Nǐ jīntiān yīdìng hěn lèile ba.) |
Outro |
| David: Today you are definitely very tired. That’s our grammar point for today. Kind of easy once you know it. So we are going to send you on your way right now but before we do, we want to remind you. If you have any questions, if you have any comments. |
| Echo: Leave a comment, comment, comment on the site. |
| David: Yeah come to chineseclass101.com, put your questions and comments on the site and we are going to get them and our community will get to them too. |
| Echo: We will answer your questions. |
| David: Okay. From Beijing, I am David. |
| Echo: 我是(Wǒ shì) Echo。 |
| David: And we’d like to wish you |
| Echo: 好好学习，天天向上。(Hǎo hào xuéxí, tiāntiān xiàngshàng.) |
| David: And we will see you soon. |
| Echo: Bye bye. |
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